Did Gaurav Gogoi, Wife Elizabeth, Share Key India Secrets With Pakistan's ISI? Himanta's Explosive Claims

Guwahati: In a fresh political storm in Assam, which goes to poll this year, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has targeted Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi, claiming that the latter's wife, Elizabeth Colburn Gogoi, shared confidential information with Pakistan. 

As Sarma leverages this case to train his guns at the Congress to whitewash the grand-old party as ‘anti-national’ and acting against the interests on India, let us understand what the case is all about:

What's The Case?

The Assam government claims that Gaurav Gogoi's British wife, Elizabeth Coleburn, had ties to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), while she was working in Islamabad. Coleburn was then employed by Tauqeer Sheikh, former adviser to Pakistan's Planning Commission. The state government had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into theses explosive allegations, and a case was registered. 

Sarma claimed that Coleburn had visited Pakistan nine times while working in two Indian organisations, and Gaurav Gogoi had accompanied her on some of those visits. Giving out details about Coleburn's career trajectory and her association with Pakistan, Sarma said that Colburn worked in the neighbouring country from March 18, 2011, to March 17, 2012, and her family had close ties with Sheikh.

Speaking at the press conference on Sunday, Sarma said, “I can at least confirm that an honourable MP from Assam visited Pakistan when his father was the chief minister.” Gaurav Gogoi’s father, Tarun Gogoi, was the Chief Minister of Assam when the Congress was in power in the state from 2001 to 2016. 

Sarma claimed that Gogoi's visit to Pakistan, in this connection, was not shared with the central government. Sarma even alleged that Gogoi had even been absent from social media during his visit. He even substantiated his claims saying that he had proof that one of the persons involved in this case had visited Pakistan between 2012 and 2016. However, the Assam Police could not collect telephonic evidence about this visit.

Divulging details about the case, Sarma told ANI, "Gaurav Gogoi's wife worked initially in Pakistan in a particular organisation. After marriage, she joined in India. But she continued to be managed by the Pakistani authority, and she used to get a salary from Pakistan through a pass-through mechanism. Sitting in India, taking a salary from an enemy country and submitting a period report on the political development in India, these are matters of great concern. Simultaneously, she visited Pakistan nine times from India. She also took Gaurav Gogoi to Pakistan." 

"The visa was given at the request of the Ministry of Interior (of Pakistan). He stayed there for 10 days. How can an MP from India be invited by the Ministry of Interior? How did he spend those 10 days in Pakistan? These are the questions we have asked. Apart from that, Gaurav Gogoi surrendered the Indian passports of both of his children and facilitated getting British passports. His wife already has a British passport. So, these are the questions we asked. I hope that Gogoi will come clean on these questions," the Assam Chief Minister said.

The Assam Chief Minister has also claimed that Gogoi’s wife, Elizabeth Colburn, had passed sensitive information about India and passed it on to Pakistan. He alleged that Colburn was offered the job by a Pakistani firm and later she was transferred to India. However, her salary continued to be paid by Tauqeer Sheikh.

The SIT submitted its report to the Assam Chief Minister, on September 10. Sarma even claimed that the “angle of religious conversion” cannot be ruled out in the case.

Why Hand It Over To The Centre

In the press conference on Sunday, Sarma said that the allegations are a "matter of serious national security" and hence his government has decided to hand it over to the central agencies. Hitting out at the Congress Assam Pradesh President, whom the grand old party has positioned as a key face in Assam ahead of the polls, Sarma said that Gogoi must answer for his wife's alleged links to Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh. 

Sarma even claimed that Elizabeth Gogoi, was drawing salary from Pakistan and passing on sensitive reports to the neighbouring nation on crucial political developments.

"He has to understand that in a matter of serious national security, and when it comes to Pakistan, you know about Operation Sindoor, Kargil, the wars we fought with Pakistan. I think you cannot divert this topic with casual remarks. You have to answer. Today you answer, or tomorrow you answer. You have to answer this," Sarma told ANI.

How Gogoi Responded

Gaurav Gogoi, meanwhile, refuted all the allegations against his wife, and called Sarma's disclosures as “super flop."

"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 wrote on X. (With ANI inputs)\

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