Gujarat Police: Saket Gokhale misappropriated money collected through crowdfunding

Gujarat Police claim the TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale has confessed to have transferred Rs 79 lakh into his account that was collected through crowdfunding.

Ahmedabad (Gujarat): Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale who was arrested by Gujarat police from Delhi in a case of alleged misuse of money he had collected through crowdfunding for his website has reportedly confessed to have transferred Rs 79 lakh into his account.

Gokhale was arrested by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch (CCB). The CCB claimed that the TMC spokesperson misused the money received for the website working on democratic research and policy, which he transferred to his personal account. During the interrogation, he revealed that he had transferred Rs 79 lakh into his account from the money which he had collected through crowdfunding, the police said.

A complaint was lodged against the TMC spokesperson with the Ahmedabad City Cybercrime on December 28, 2022 in this regard. Based on the complaint, the CCB booked Gokhale under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as the provisions of IT Act and began an inquiry into the complaint. Saket was subsequently arrested on December 29, 2022.

This was the third time Gokhale has been arrested by Gujarat police since December. He was first arrested by the CCB 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 that killed more than 100 people.

On December 1, Gokhale 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 here, the TMC leader was again arrested on December 8 by the Morbi police for the same offense registered there. He was granted bail the next day.