TMC leader Gokhale lied about Rahul’s aide: ED

Trinamool Congress' national spokesperson Saket Gokhale allegedly lied to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that he received Rs23.54 lakh in cash from Alankar Sawai, the personal assistant to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, for social media and other consultancy works.

The ED has claimed that the amount was part of the funds he raised through crowdfunding in the name of social activism but didn't show it in his income tax returns. To ascertain this, ED had questioned Sawai who denied having paid any money to Gokhale. Later, Gokhale and Sawai were questioned together where also Sawai, ED said, maintained that he never paid him any money. Gokhale, according to ED, failed to explain the source of money and he didn't have any other source of income except crowdfunding.

"...it is evident the cash amounting to Rs23.54 lakhs deposited in his bank account is nothing but the funds raised in cash through crowdfunding," ED has said in its prosecution complaint, similar to a police chargesheet, filed recently before a special court dealing with money laundering cases.

Read | Gujarat court grants bail to TMC's Saket Gokhale in money laundering case

Gokhale is being investigated by ED based on an FIR registered on December 28 with Ahmedabad Cyber Cell for alleged criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery along with criminal conspiracy. He was accused of collecting funds through crowdfunding for social services and used them for personal purposes.

The prosecution complaint stated that Gokhale generated money but didn't "utilise the funds raised through crowdfunding for intended purpose but instead he diverted the funds and utilised the same for his personal sustenance and lavish lifestyle...."

"...investigation has revealed that Saket Gokhale raised total funds amounting to Rs1,14,26,992 and after deduction of service charges by online platforms Ourdemocracy and Razorpay, an amount of Rs1,06,65.011 was remitted to his bank account," the ED has stated.

The complaint states that Gokhale didn't declare the funds raised through crowdfunding in his income tax returns for the financial years 2019-20 and 2020-2021 and "after seeing the ITR he realised that he had not declared the full amount in his returns and he had no reason to justify."

ED has said that Gokhale, a former journalist, started filing RTI applications on issues related to corruption, governance, transparency, human rights, fact checks for research data, among others. Majority of his applications were with the central government and various national institutions such as CAG, CVC, Election Commission. According to ED, "till date Gokhale has filed more than 400 RTI applications, using only Rs4000."

It said that Gokhale had raised funds for filing RTI applications, filing PIL against PM Narendra Modi Modi and for legal justice of his father Suhas Umakant Gokhale. ED has said that he failed to "to provide details of expenditure incurred on the intended purpose of campaigns run online on platform."

"Gokhale couldn't provide details of how much funds raised under campaign "justice for Suhah" were used. What is more astonishing is that his father, for whom he run (sic) the said campaign, is unaware of such campaign. His father has categorically stated that Saket has neither given him any money nor to any of his family members," the ED has stated in its prosecution complaint.

Gokhale has defended himself that "he raised the funds for his sustenance also and it was clear to the donors from day one..." "However, investigation has revealed that he had never disclosed that he is raising the funds for his sustenance," ED has claimed. It further says that he used funds for "intraday speculative trading in the stock market in which he claimed to have suffered huge loss of more than Rs30 lakhs. Thus, by his own admission, Saket Gokhale diverted the money collected through crowdfunding." It adds further that "Gokhale is a graduate and no financial expert nor is he in the business of share trading. The move and actual flow of funds behind this claim is also being further examined."

The prosecution complaint also claims that he invested in crypto on platform WazirX in which he suffered a loss of over Rs 2.94 lakh. When questioned about credit entries amounting to Rs93,923.70 in his DBS bank account, Gokhale told ED that it was the amount he spent "for a group of friends at restaurants, cafe etc."

He also used the raised funds for dine and purchase of wine amounting to Rs23,525, used Rs 59,33,340 for payment of his personal credit card dues, Rs4,87,000 for payment of his purchase for personal use, Rs 76,766 paid to Swiggy and Rs 4,22,196 was spent through Paytm. He is reported to have paid Rs1.26 lakh to Moksha Foundation, a de-addiction and rehabilitation centre in Nasik for treatment of his maternal uncle.

Gokhale was recently granted bail by the special PMLA court and is currently out of jail. He is facing two more criminal cases in Gujarat. He was first arrested on December 6 by the Cyber Cell for tweeting a morphed news clipping claiming that Rs30 crore was spent on prime minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi to meet survivors of suspension bridge collapse in Morbi town.

Gokhale was also picked up by Morbi police in another case for allegedly "promoting enmity between classes in connection with election" under section 125 of People's Representation Act, 1950 for his tweet during election time.