Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday alleged that the documents cited by the Congress, to claim that his wife holds passports of three foreign countries, had been supplied by a Pakistani social media group.

“In the last 10 days, a Pakistani channel has done at least 11 talk shows regarding the election in Assam, which has never happened before,” Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed. “In every talk show the final conclusion is that the Congress should win. Now the Pakistani link to yesterday’s press conference [by the Congress] has also become very apparent.”

On Sunday, Congress leader Pawan Khera claimed that he had documentary evidence showing that the chief minister’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma holds passports of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday refuted the allegations, describing them as “malicious, fabricated and politically motivated lies”. The chief minister and his wife said that they would initiate legal action against Khera.

The allegations came ahead of the Assembly elections that will be held on Thursday. The votes will be counted on May 4.

On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that his wife has filed a first information report against Khera and others.

Himanta Biswa Sarma said that when a matter is raised before the public with “fraudulent documents”, a case against the person can be filed for cheating and forgery.

“When you use these allegations with fabricated documents to influence a result or outcome of an election, then it attracts higher penalty provisions, and the punishment for that is life imprisonment,” he added.

The chief minister claimed that the Congress had used details from an allegedly lost passport that had been uploaded to a Pakistani social media group to frame his wife. “They photoshopped it,” he alleged.

The BJP leader said that anyone can register a company by paying $199. “After yesterday’s press conference, they created another company in the name of Riniki...” he alleged.

He claimed that the Congress had used images of passports and documents procured from a Pakistani social media group.

“[Congress’ Assam chief] Gaurav Gogoi was helped by a Pakistani social media group...” Himanta Biswa Sarma alleged. “How Pakistan is trying to influence the Assam election, this is very important.”

In a social media post on Sunday, the chief minister claimed that the documents being shared by the Congress showed “multiple glaring inconsistencies, suggesting a crude and poorly executed attempt at digital manipulation”.

He claimed that there was a mismatch in the spellings of his wife’s surname, passport numbers and expiry dates, and other such errors in the copies of the three passports the Congress had shown during the press conference.

Sarma had said that the alleged inconsistencies strongly indicated “possible fabrication or digital manipulation”.

In a separate social media post, he added that he and his wife would file both criminal and civil defamation cases within the next 48 hours.

Khera told ANI on Sunday that the Congress will present more evidence to support its allegations against the chief minister’s wife.