New Delhi: Citing the recent verbal duel between Congress’s Pawan Khera and BJP’s Himanta Biswa Sarma in the run-up to the elections, the Supreme Court said the allegations against the Assam CM’s wife and the allegations made by her appear to be politically motivated, reports Amit Anand Chaudhary.The court, while granting anticipatory bail to the Congress spokesperson, said that due to the situation, there is no need for custodial interrogation.A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Atul S Chandurkar said that the right to personal liberty is a cherished fundamental right, and any deprivation of it must be justified at a high bar, especially where the surrounding circumstances may indicate the presence of political implications. Kheda was feared to be arrested by the Assam Police, which had unsuccessfully tried to detain him after Sarma’s wife filed an FIR against him accusing him of forgery and other things.Cannot look away from Himanta’s unparliamentary remarks: Supreme CourtCiting the verbal duel between Pawan Kheda and Himanta Biswa Sarma in the recent elections, the Supreme Court said the allegations against the Assam CM’s wife and the allegations made by her appear to be politically motivated rather than revealing a situation requiring custodial interrogation and granted anticipatory bail to the Congress spokesperson.A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Atul S Chandurkar said that the right to personal liberty is a cherished fundamental right, and any deprivation of it must be justified at a high bar, especially where the surrounding circumstances may indicate the presence of political implications. It granted pre-arrest bail to Kheda, who feared arrest by the Assam Police, which had unsuccessfully tried to detain him after Sarma’s wife filed an FIR against the spokesperson alleging fraud and other things.However, it barred the politician from leaving the country without the court’s approval and directed him to cooperate with the investigation and attend the police station whenever required and informed.In a loud press conference, Kheda had accused Rinki of acquiring citizenship of other countries and running companies abroad. However, Rinki and her husband termed the documents that Khera had dramatically produced as fake and filed an FIR against him. Khera immediately left Guwahati and obtained transit anticipatory bail from the Telangana High Court.The Assam government moved the Supreme Court saying Kheda had misled the Telangana High Court to seek relief. The top court agreed and asked the Congressman to seek relief from the Guwahati HC.Kheda moved SC after Gauhati HC denied him anticipatory bail.The court said that according to the prosecution, the passports which Khera had displayed, said to be those of the CM’s wife, were fake and this was done to defame the CM’s wife and damage her reputation. “However, in the main it appears that this statement has been made by the Appellant only to gain some political momentum in favor of his party. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the Chief Minister of the State, who is also the husband of the Complainant, has made certain unparliamentary comments against the Appellant in various press statements.”Though the apex court had earlier refused to grant him any interim protection to allow him to file a bail plea in the Gauhati HC, this time the scale of justice tilted in his favor as his counsel and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi highlighted various statements made by the Assam CM to convince the court that the state government was hell-bent on arresting him by any means. Even the court recorded those statements in its order.