Facing a criminal case over his defamatory allegations against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife, Congress leader Pawan Khera landed in further trouble on Friday as the Supreme Court refused to entertain his plea seeking protection against possible coercive action by the Assam Police till April 20.A Bench of Justice J K Maheshwari and Justice Atul S Chandurkar refused to vacate its April 15 order staying the anticipatory bail granted to Khera by the Telangana High Court and asked him to move a court of competent jurisdiction in Assam for anticipatory bail in the case.The Bench chose not to accept the submissions made by senior advocate Abhishek M Singhvi, representing the Congress leader, to extend the transit bail till next Tuesday to enable him to approach an Assam Court on Monday.The top court’s refusal makes Khera vulnerable to coercive action by the Assam Police which had on April 7, accompanied by Delhi Police personnel, visited his residence. Officials had claimed recovery of “incriminating” material during searches.The Bench asked courts in Assam to take up Khera’s plea expeditiously without getting influenced by adverse remarks, if any, made by it and the Telangana High Court in the case.Spelling trouble for Khera, the Supreme Court had on April 15 stayed the Telangana High Court’s order granting him one-week transit anticipatory bail in the case.Acting on a petition filed by the Assam Government’s petition against the April 10 order of the Telangana High Court, the Bench had stayed the April 10 order of the high court, noting that Khera had submitted the Aadhaar Number of his wife to show that she resided in Telangana to invoke the jurisdiction of that high court.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had pointed out on behalf of the Assam Government that Khera moving Telangana High Court for bail in a case lodged in Assam was a “complete abuse of process” and amounted to “forum shopping”.The high court ignored the fact that one of the offences Khera was accused of carried a maximum punishment of 10-year imprisonment, Mehta had said.The Bench had expressed surprise over the high court’s order. “The document Aadhar card has been used… The front page of the Aadhar card is the name of respondent no. 1 (Pawan Khera) but the backside indicates the address of his wife. Thus, by furnishing a forged document the respondent took advantage of jurisdiction of the Telangana High Court,” it had said.On Friday, Singhvi clarified that the high court petition was filed in a hurry and a mix-up of documents happened. However, further documents were produced to show that Khera’s wife has residence in Telangana, and that she was a Telugu who contested the Telangana assembly elections.The Telangana High Court had granted interim protection from arrest to Khera to enable him to move the competent court in Assam and seek regular bail in the case.The Assam Police had registered an FIR in Guwahati over allegations arising from Khera’s April 5 press conference, in which he alleged that Chief Minister Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma held multiple passports and foreign properties that were not disclosed in the Chief Minister’s election affidavit for the April 9 Assembly polls.During the hearing before the Telangana High Court, Singhvi had argued that the FIR was a product of political vendetta and that the Congress leader was being targeted for questioning the Assam Chief Minister and his family. The allegations, even if assumed to be incorrect, would at best constitute defamation and not warrant arrest, he had argued.Assam Advocate General Devajit Saikia had questioned the maintainability of Khera’s petition before the Telangana High Court on the ground that being a resident of Delhi; the Congress leader had no compelling reason to seek relief in Telangana.