The Supreme Court has refused to extend the transit bail for Assam Congress leader Pawan Khera in the Riniki Bhuiyan passport row.
The top court instead directed the Congress chief to approach the Guwahati High Court and file an anticipatory bail.
The leaders' request for bail was refused by a bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Atul S Chandurkar.
The Supreme Court clarified that the Assam court would not be influenced by the observations made by it in the previous order, including its stay of the Telangana High Court’s grant of transit anticipatory bail.
The court also rebuked Khera for submitting incorrect documents, including an Aadhaar card.
Khera’s advocate Abhishek Manu Singh argued that the documents had been corrected during the hearing in the Telangana high court. He said the errors were not made with any criminal intent.
The new order comes after the court questioned the Telangana High Court’s jurisdiction in the hearing of Khera’s case in Assam.
The Supreme Court stay had made him vulnerable to arrest by the Assam police.
The case began after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma alleged that Khera made false statements against his wife.
The controversy began after Khera alleged during a press conference that Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sharma held multiple passports and owned foreign property that were not disclosed in the CM’s election affidavit.