Gujarat court denies bail to Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale

A metropolitan court in Ahmedabad on Thursday rejected the bail application of Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale, who is behind the bars for alleged misuse of money he is reported to have collected through crowdfunding. This is the third case registered against him since December and was arrested in each of the cases.

In the latest case, Gokhale was arrested from Delhi last Thursday related to a case of alleged misuse of money. Ahmedabad cyber cell police registered the FIR against the politician. The Cyber Cell police officials said that Gokhale reportedly collected Rs 79 lakh through crowdfunding in the name of "activism" but allegedly used them for "personal consumption."

The metropolitan magistrate rejected the bail application of Gokhale while holding the prosecution's argument that the investigation was still on. Gokhale was first arrested on December 6 for tweeting a morphed news story claiming that Rs 30 crore was spent on prime minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi to meet survivors of a suspension bridge collapse.

Moments after he was granted bail in the case, a team of Morbi police arrested Gokhale in a fresh case for allegedly "promoting enmity between classes in connection with election" under section 125 of People's Representation Act, 1950. The section describes, "Any person who in connection with an election under this Act promotes or attempts to promote on grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language, feelings of enmity or hatred, between different classes of the citizens of India shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both."

The FIR stated that Gokhale's tweet was based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Morbi visit on November 1, to meet survivors of bridge collapse and it was tweeted on December 1, when Morbi and some other parts of Gujarat voted in the first phase polling of Gujarat Assembly election.

The FIR stated that his tweet was allegedly aimed at "impacting the Assembly election by tweeting fake information and promoting enmity or hatred among different classes and therefore, should be investigated under section 125 of People's Representative Act, 1951."