The Supreme Court sought a response from the Gujarat police on a plea filed by Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale seeking bail in a case related to alleged misuse of money collected through crowdfunding. A Bench led by Justice BR Gavai asked them to respond within two weeks.
Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Mr Gokhale, had earlier submitted that the petitioner has always maintained that he has collected money from crowdfunding.
What is the case against him?
The case against Gokhale is that he allegedly collected over Rs 72 lakh from more than 1,700 persons through a crowdfunding platform ‘our democracy’ and used that money for personal use and thus, misappropriated the funds, according to a report by LiveLaw. He is facing charges under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 467 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Gujarat High Court on January 23 had refused bail to Gokhale and asked him to approach the court only after a charge sheet is filed.
He was arrested by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch from Delhi on December 30, 2022. This was the third time Gokhale was arrested in that month by Gujarat Police.
Before this, he was first arrested by the Cyber Crime Branch on December 6 for allegedly spreading fake news regarding the cost incurred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi town following a bridge collapse tragedy.
On December 1, Gokhale had shared a news clipping about information purportedly obtained through the Right to Information claiming that Modi's visit to Morbi after the bridge collapse cost Rs 30 crore.
Soon after he received bail from a court, the TMC leader was again arrested on December 8 by the Morbi police for the same offence registered there. He was granted bail the next day.
(With PTI Inputs)
