Guwahati, March 29: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today accused the BJP of spending several crores of rupees to try and topple his government last year with the help of Himanta Biswa Sarma while a city court restrained the former from making comments in public linking his former blue-eyed boy to two major scams.

Echoing his Himachal Pradesh counterpart Virbhadra Singh that the BJP was trying to destabilise Congress governments in different states in the country, Gogoi alleged that the BJP had spent hundreds of crores of rupees before the Bihar Assembly elections last year to topple his government in Assam.

"The BJP tried to topple my government with him (Himanta) and other dissident Congress MLAs. Sarma had almost garnered the support of over 30 MLAs and tried the same tactics used in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand of shifting base to BJP to topple governments. Fortunately, their efforts did not bear any fruit," Gogoi told reporters here this morning.

Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, who recently lambasted the Congress government for allegedly failing to fulfil the aspirations of the people of the state during its 15 years of rule, Gogoi alleged that Modi was "ruling the country in Hitler's style and toppling democratically elected Congress governments in states".

Gogoi alleged that the Modi government was appointing governors only to execute its design to topple Congress governments. "Why has the Centre not appointed a permanent governor for Assam till this date? Such a man (Modi), who follows Hitler, talks about good governance, doing away with corruption and seeks votes from people," he said.

While Gogoi hit out at the BJP and Modi, a district and sessions court here issued a restraining order on him and a city-based media house asking them not to make any statement or publish news linking Sarma directly or indirectly to the Louis Berger bribery and Saradha scam cases.

The verdict was passed by civil judge Syed Imdadur Rahman after hearing senior advocates Devajit Saikia and Robin Baruah who represented the petitioner (Sarma) and New Delhi-based lawyers Rana Mukherjee and Atul Buragohain on behalf of the defendant (Gogoi) yesterday.

Sarma, who is contesting the Assembly elections from Jalukbari constituency on a BJP ticket, had filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Gogoi last year alleging that the latter had branded him as an accused in the Saradha and Louis Berger bribery cases without any proof. Gogoi's allegation was published by a city-based media house.

"The opposite parties (Tarun Gogoi and the media group) of the suit are hereby restrained from repeating the statement/fresh publishing of the concerned news items or making any statement or publishing any news item in other way having the same meaning on the same basis/fact," the verdict stated.

"We have furnished the summons notice to my client from the CBI which is investigating the Saradha case in which the former had mentioned my client as a witness and not as an accused. We also furnished a document from the district civil court of New Jersey in the US that mentioned that no minister from Assam was involved in the Louis Berger bribery case. The court, after going through the proof, gave the verdict," Saikia told The Telegraph.

Gauhati High Court has quashed and set aside a case against Sarma filed in 2014 when, during a campaign for Lok Sabha elections at Tezpur, Sarma said Muslim blood flows through water pipes of Gujarat. At that time, he was in the Congress and the district president of Assam BJP, Ritu Baran Sarma had filed the case. Later, the petitioner withdrew the case.

Gogoi's age

Chief minister Gogoi today accused Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Shah of insulting the people of Assam by raising questions on his age during their recent election rallies in the state.

While Modi said he did not intend to "fight against Gogoi who was 90", Shah said it was high time for Gogoi to enjoy a retired life.

Gogoi, who will turn 80 next month, said he has been made the chief minister thrice by the people of Assam and not by Modi or Shah. "So who are they to ask about my age? Anyway, their statements have made me 10 years younger," he said with a tinge of humour.

Additional reporting by Avishek Sengupta