Gujarat Court denies bail to TMC’s Saket Gokhale in crowdfunding ‘misuse’ case

Ahmedabad: A metropolitan court in the city denied bail to Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale yesterday in a case about alleged misuse of money collected through crowdfunding.

Observing that a case under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 467 (forgery) was made out against the accused, additional chief metropolitan magistrate Manish Chauhan rejected the bail plea.

Saket was arrested last week by Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch from Delhi. He was then subsequently sent to jail under judicial custody. He will now have to approach the sessions court for relief.

According to the FIR, Saket allegedly misused the money he had collected through crowdfunding. The complainant from Gandhinagar claimed to have donated Rs 500.

Gokhale collected nearly Rs 80 lakh through the crowdfunding platform ‘ourdemocracy’ from more than 1,700 people and used that money for personal use, the public prosecutor said, opposing bail.

Gokhale argued that the complainant was a government employee, and the FIR was registered due to a grudge against him. He also argued that he paid tax on the fund collected.

This is the third FIR against the Gokahle in Gujarat. He was first booked for spreading fake news about PM Modi’s visit to Morbi after the Bridge Collapse incident. DeshGujarat