Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) [India], February 8 (ANI): Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday strongly criticised Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging that the latter is leveraging 'false allegations' against Gaurav Gogoi to conceal a major land scandal.

He further alleged that 1.5 lakh acres of land have been given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'close people'.

Speaking to reporters here, Khera said, 'They have been speaking nonsense for the past year and have now produced a so-called SIT report.'

He also claimed this was a deliberate move to divert attention from the alleged land scam, in which 1.5 lakh acres of land were allegedly given to people close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

'To divert attention from these issues, false allegations are being imposed by the BJP. The allegations against the late Tarun Gogoi and his family, who laid the foundation of modern Assam, are deeply hurtful to the sentiments of the Assamese people,' Khera claimed.

Earlier in the day, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma slammed Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi over his wife, Elizabeth Colburn Gogoi's, alleged links to Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, stating that the Congress leader attempted to legitimise the neighbouring country.

He claimed that Ali Tauqeer Sheikh was allowed to visit India 13 times under the UPA government.

The Assam CM said, 'Interesting thing is, during the Congress period, era of UPA, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh was allowed to visit India 13 times. He criticised India in all forums, but he was allowed to visit India 13 times. All visits took place when Dr Manmohan Singh was the PM of India, and Elizabeth and Gaurav were closely connected to the power structure of India. All visas were issued during the Congress rule. Once PM Modi came to power, he stopped visiting India. He also brought high-level Pakistani officials along with him during the visits to India. Elizabeth came to Pakistan from America in 2011. She was transferred to India but continued to be paid by Ali Tauqeer.'

Alleging a link between Elizabeth Colburn Gogoi and Pakistani climate activist Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, he claimed that she used to share the Centre's climate action reports with Sheikh.

Meanwhile, Gogoi refuted the allegations made by the Chief Minister against his wife, Elizabeth Colburn Gogoi, calling it a 'super flop' press conference.

In an X post, Gogoi hit back at Sarma's allegations, citing the Samay Parivartan Yatra, which Congress began to expose alleged corruption and communal politics by the BJP in the State.

'I pity the journalists from Delhi and Assam who had to suffer the most flop press conference of the century. This was worse than a C-grade cinema. Most mindless and bogus points offered by the so-called political shrewd Chief Minister. This Super Flop is in contrast to our Xomoy Parivartan Yatra, which has been a hit in uncovering the 12,000 bighas of land occupied by the Chief Minister and his family members,' the Congress MP said.

On Saturday, Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the transfer of the SIT probe to a central agency.

The row began in February last year, when the Assam Chief Minister said that Ali Tauqeer Sheikh had visited India several times. (ANI)