The Assam government has announced that legal action will be taken against retired IAS officer Hitesh Dev Sarma for allegedly threatening NKTV PLUS journalist Rana Deka and his eight-year-old child. Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma addressed the matter and said that such threats against journalists will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
The controversy erupted following a phone call reportedly made by Sarma on the night of November 21, during which he allegedly issued death threats to Deka. The threats were linked to a news report aired by NKTV, where Deka works, concerning Sarma’s son, Geetarth Dev Sarma, an APS officer accused of assaulting a fan of the late singer Zubeen Garg in Mushalpur, Baksa district.
The incident coincided with the transfer of accused individuals in Zubeen Garg’s mysterious death case including Shyamkanu Mahanta and Siddharth Sharma from Guwahati to Baksa District Jail. The transfer had caused unrest outside the jail complex, further heightening tensions in the area. 
Following the alleged threats, Rana Deka filed an FIR at Pathsala Police Station. Police officials have initiated a thorough investigation into the matter.
Himanta Biswa Sarma said that he is not aware of the incident but assured that the government would ensure that justice is served and that journalists can work without fear or intimidation.
Hitesh Dev Sarma, a 1986-batch Assam Civil Service (ACS) officer who retired in 2021, previously served as the State Coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam from November 2019 to May 2022, succeeding IAS officer Prateek Hajela. In this role, Sarma was tasked with managing post-publication processes, including the issuance of rejection slips to 1.9 million individuals excluded from the final NRC list published in August 2019, handling appeals and overseeing data verification amid widespread scrutiny.
His tenure focused on addressing alleged discrepancies in the NRC draft and final lists, where he claimed to have identified significant irregularities, including up to 40% ineligible entries in sampled cases which compelled re-verification.
Sarma’s involvement in the NRC process was not without controversy; in May 2022, he filed an FIR against Hajela, accusing his predecessor of treason, conspiracy and cheating by deliberately allowing ineligible foreign nationals into the register, a move that drew criticism from opposition groups and led Left parties to demand his removal as coordinator.
Moreover , Sarma faced legal scrutiny himself, including a 2023 criminal complaint for posting offensive statements on social media targeting a BCCI official and Supreme Court petitions alleging his Facebook posts contained communal remarks against “East Pakistani Muslims,” which the court described as potentially inflammatory during hearings in 2022.
More recently, in August 2025, Sarma petitioned the Supreme Court for a comprehensive NRC re-verification citing forged documents and software manipulations that he alleged cost over Rs 1,600 crore.
