Guwahati, Jan. 5: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today said he will not make a "hero" out of BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma in the December 28 Rajiv Bhawan attack case.

The chief minister was reacting to queries from reporters on whether the government was afraid of arresting his one-time blue-eyed-boy-turned-bête noire in the case despite an FIR being filed by the Assam PCC.

"(I am) not afraid of him. But I don't want to make a hero out of him. Law will take its own course. A case has been registered against him and he will have to contest it," said Gogoi, who is also the home minister looking after police.

Gogoi said a case had also been registered in Tezpur against Sarma for his statement against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. "He was not arrested then," he said.

Sources close to the chief minister told The Telegraph that there was all-round pressure from Congressmen and well-wishers of his government not to arrest Sarma as it would deflect attention from the "unprecedented attack" on the office of a political party. "We were flooded with phone calls not to arrest him," one of them said tonight.

The Congress on December 29, in addition to the case that the Assam PCC had filed just after the attack in Rajiv Bhawan, had filed another FIR at Bhangagarh police station naming Sarma as an abettor in the attack. Following the complaint, the police registered a case and Sarma was levied with charges of abetting the attack under Section 108 IPC.

"We are investigating the case but have not found any substantial evidence against Sarma to prove that he had abetted the attack," officer-in-charge of Bhangagarh police station, Bimal Chandra Deka, told The Telegraph today.

The punishment for abetting depends on the crime. In this case, Sarma, if found guilty, will be levied with charges for rioting and obstructing government personnel from discharging their duties. It's a non-bailable offence.

The Assam PCC had alleged that on December 28 when a crowd of BJP supporters, protesting former agriculture minister Nilamani Sen Deka's controversial remark on Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, did not find the latter in his residence, Sarma called them up and instructed them to attack Rajiv Bhawan.

Deka had said people are saying Irani is the second wife of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Deka has since apologised and the Congress condemned his remark.

Four cases were registered at Bhangagarh police station in connection with the December 28 protest that turned violent.

Altogether 17 people, 10 from the BJP and seven from the Congress, were arrested. Six of the 10 BJP members were out on bail yesterday. Congress members arrested on December 30 had got bail the next day. At least 20 Congress workers were injured in the attack.

Additional reporting by Avishek Sengupta