SC issues notice to Gujarat Govt over Saket Gokhale's arrest

• The Gujarat HC on January 23 had refused bail to Gokhale and asked him to approach the court only after a charge sheet is filed
• Gokhale was arrested by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch from Delhi on December 30, 2022, in a case of alleged misuse of money he had collected through crowdfunding
• He is facing charges under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 467 (forgery) of the IPC

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Gujarat government to respond to the bail plea of ​​Trinamool Congress (TMC) national spokesperson Saket Gokhale in a case of misappropriation of funds raised in an online campaign.

A bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice Vikram Nath issued a notice to the Gujarat government and sought its reply within two weeks. On January 23, the Gujarat High Court refused to grant bail to Gokhale.

While rejecting Gokhale's bail plea, the Supreme Court found that from the police report as well as from the witness statements and the affidavit filed by the Investigating Officer (IO), there appeared to be serious allegations and that a prima facie case was made out against Gokhale.  The High Court observed that from the testimony of the complainant and another witness, it appears that the funds raised for the welfare of the people were used by Gokhale for his personal expenses.

 As per the statement of witness of witnesses, the applicant has not only received amount from the wife of the complainant, but received amount from the people from around 1767 persons and collecting funding using the social media or rather website received the payment by using online payment gateways.

Many transactions appear prima facie to have been made through the bank statement, so it cannot be denied that some transactions may be made for his personal use or not, which is a question of fact and can only be decided by evidence at the time of trial, not at the stage of investigation when the charge sheet is yet to be filed,” the high court said in its order.

The High Court further said that the case is in the nature of fraud and cheating and considering that the investigation is still going on and necessary evidence needs to be collected, it is not inclined to exercise its power to grant bail to Gokhale. "For the above reasons and from the facts and circumstances of the case, it appears that the prosecution has clearly established a prima facie case against the present applicant, and therefore this court is not inclined to exercise the powers conferred by Section 439 of the Civil Code. of the Criminal Code for the release of the present applicant on bail,” the High Court said.

Gokhale claimed in the Supreme Court that he was a victim of political vendetta. Gokhale was first arrested on December 6 last year after an FIR was lodged against him on a complaint regarding the sharing of newspaper clippings of information allegedly obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi, where a century-old suspension bridge collapsed in October, costing 30 million rupees.

He was granted bail in the case on December 8, but as soon as he was released, he was immediately arrested by the Ahmedabad Police Cyber ​​Cell in a case of misappropriation of funds raised in an online campaign.