SIT questions Congress leader Ripun Bora in Gaurav Gogoi's 'Pakistan links' case

Guwahati, May 29 (IANS) Former Assam Congress president and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora on Thursday underwent a marathon questioning by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of state police after he defended Gaurav Gogoi for his visit to Pakistan in 2013.

Ripun Bora reiterated his commitment to cooperate with the law, asserting that he has nothing to hide.

“They can call me 100 times. We in the Congress party respect the law,” Bora told reporters, following the interrogation led by SIT head Rosie Kalita.

Bora alleged that investigators attempted to corner him with a barrage of detailed questions about his public rebuttal of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s claims against Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi.

“They asked me why I challenged the Chief Minister’s allegations and what basis I had for doing so,” he said, maintaining that he stood firmly by his previous statements and denied all charges levelled against Gogoi.

Bora called on the SIT to extend its probe to BJP MLA Diganta Kalita, who, he claimed, had made a detailed Facebook post describing a supposed 2013 trip by Gogoi to Pakistan, complete with a Karachi flight, hotel stay, and dinner with Pakistani nationals.

“How could Diganta Kalita provide such specific details unless he was with Gogoi?” Bora questioned, pointing out that Kalita was still in the Congress and close to Gogoi at the time.

Bora said he explicitly urged the SIT to summon Kalita, arguing that only someone with firsthand knowledge could have written such an elaborate post.

“If he wasn’t with Gogoi, how could he know all of this?” he asked.

Responding to recent remarks by Sarma, who suggested Bora possessed further information about Gogoi’s alleged foreign visit, the Congress leader brushed off the claim.

“Not everything the Chief Minister says is true,” he said, adding, “I answered all questions put forward by the SIT and defended every statement I have made. Gaurav Gogoi has never visited Pakistan illegally.”

Earlier, Ripun Bora claimed that Sarma is unnerved by Gogoi’s rising popularity and sees him as a serious threat to his political future.

"Himanta Biswa Sarma is sure he will lose the election if Congress declares Gaurav Gogoi as its chief ministerial face. Gogoi’s growing acceptance across the state has clearly rattled him," said Bora.

Bora pointed to Gogoi’s victory in the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections, despite what he called a full-blown effort by the BJP to defeat him, as evidence of the MP’s growing political stature.

"The Chief Minister is trying to label Gogoi as an ISI agent without presenting any evidence. No one is taking these baseless claims seriously," Bora said.

Defending Gogoi’s wife, Elizabeth Colburn, a British citizen employed by an international NGO with a presence in Pakistan, Bora dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing.

"She may have worked in Pakistan or received a salary for that work. What’s wrong with that? Many Pakistanis legally work in India, too," he stated.

--IANS

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