The Supreme Court on Friday declined to extend the transit anticipatory bail granted to Congress leader Pawan Khera by the Telangana High Court in connection with an FIR registered against him in Assam. A bench comprising Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Atul S. Chandurkar refused Khera’s plea for further protection, directing him to approach the competent court in Assam for regular anticipatory bail. The apex court has already stayed the transit anticipatory bail granted by the HC on the plea of the Assam police.
Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Khera, sought an extension of the transit relief till Tuesday to enable him to file an application in Assam on Monday. He argued that the Telangana petition was filed in haste and claimed that forged document submitted was a “minor document mix-up.” Notably, while applying for bail in Telangana, Pawan Khera had used the front of Khera’s Aadhaar card along with the reverse side of his wife’s card to establish residence in Telangana. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Assam government, had earlier highlighted the use of an incorrect document to invoke Telangana’s jurisdiction.
Singhvi submitted that the error was genuine and had been clarified before the High Court, and that the Supreme Court’s earlier ex-parte stay should not prejudice Khera’s personal liberty under Article 21. He described the FIR as essentially a defamation complaint and questioned the need for Assam police to pursue Khera aggressively.
However, the bench expressed reservations about the “small error” argument, with Justice Maheshwari questioning whether presenting a wrong document could be dismissed lightly. “Small error? You are saying this is a small error?” Justice Maheshwari asked. Singhvi claimed that a ‘genuine error’ was presented as forgery by Assam police, and it was clarified in the High Court.
However, the Supreme Court refused to accept that argument, and declined the extension. But the court clarified that observations in its previous stay order dated 15 April and the Telangana High Court’s order should not influence the Assam court’s consideration of Khera’s anticipatory bail application. The bench added that if the concerned court is not functioning due to holidays, an appropriate request can be made as per prevailing practice.
The Supreme Court had on 15 April stayed the Telangana High Court’s one-week transit anticipatory bail order after noting surprise at the grant of relief in a case where the offence was registered in Assam.
Background of the Case
The FIR was lodged at Guwahati Crime Branch Police Station on the complaint of Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, wife of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. It invokes multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including those relating to false statements in connection with an election, criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security and public records, using forged documents as genuine, intentional insult, and defamation.
The case originated from a press conference held by Pawan Khera in New Delhi on 5 April 2026, during the Assam Assembly election campaign. Khera alleged that Riniki Bhuyan Sharma possessed three foreign passports (from the UAE, Egypt, and Antigua and Barbuda) and that the family had concealed assets worth ₹52,000 crore through shell companies registered in Wyoming, USA. He displayed purported documents as evidence before the media.
The Forged Documents Presented
All documents shown by Khera have since been exposed as crude forgeries. The so-called UAE “passport” was in fact a digitally manipulated Emirates ID card (Golden Card) lifted from a lost wallet belonging to a Pakistani national, as posted in a private Facebook group “Pakistani in Ajman”. The identical 15-digit ID number appeared on both the original lost document and the version circulated by Congress, an impossibility under the UAE’s strict unique biometric numbering system. Similarly, the alleged Antigua & Barbuda and Egyptian passports have been confirmed to be fake by the respective countries.
The documents contain several discrepancies, like wrong spelling of the name, mismatch in detail in machine readable zone, and others.
The American companies cited by Khera were registered online on the Wyoming Secretary of State portal for a nominal fee of USD 199 with virtually no verification. One was filed on 3 April and another shortly after the press conference on 5th April. To demonstrate how easily such entities can be created, the Assam BJP unit registered a mock company named GauravElizabeth786 LLC on the same portal. Himanta Biswa Sarma has also pointed out the practical impossibility of routing or concealing ₹52,000 crore through a one-day-old US shell company during an active election campaign under strict foreign exchange and banking regulations.
Similarly, the Dubai properties alleged to be owned by the CM’s wife were found to be owned by others, and Congress digitally altered names and other details on the publicly available documents.
Riniki Bhuyan Sharma has filed the FIR against Pawan Khera, and both she and CM Sarma have initiated criminal and civil defamation proceedings over his allegations using forged documents. With the Supreme Court declining further extension of transit relief, Khera must now seek anticipatory bail from a court in Assam, where the investigation into the forgery and related offences continues.
