In Himanta vs Gaurav, a Rs 500 crore defamation suit, a police complaint

In a press conference last Wednesday, the Congress had launched a new campaign against Sarma, alleging that “12,000 bighas of land have been grabbed in the name of his family members in different parts of the state in violation of rules”. Within hours of this, Sarma had called the allegations “false, malicious and defamatory” and threatened civil and criminal defamation proceedings against the Congress leaders who led the press conference.

Meanwhile, MLAs Bora and Barman submitted a complaint at Dispur police station in Guwahati seeking an FIR against Sarma for the post on X.

“The aforesaid content targeting a particular community is highly provocative and communal, which will definitely lead to social disharmony amongst the people,” states the complaint.

The video, uploaded on Saturday with the caption “Point blank shot”, shows an image of Sarma shooting at a photograph of the two men, and ends with an image of him dressed like a cowboy and wielding a gun, superimposed with phrases such as “No mercy to Bangladeshis”, “Why did you go to Pakistan?” and “Foreigner-free Assam.” It was deleted on Sunday.

In a statement, the Congress said the video “appears to glorify the targeted, ‘point-blank’ murder of minorities”.