Supreme Court To Hear TMC Spokesperson Saket Gokhale's Plea For Bail In Gujarat Police FIR After Holi Vacations

The Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear after Holi vacations the petition filed by Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale challenging the order of the Gujarat High Court which denied him bail in case related to alleged misappropriation of funds collected through crowdfunding.

A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath said that the case got listed in the supplementary list very late in the day yesterday night and said that they will hear it on March 13.

"We will have it immediately after vacation. This file came late night, we did not have the time to go through it", Justice Gavai told Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi who was appearing on behalf of Gokhale.

The allegations against him are that he collected over Rs 72 lakh from more than 1,700 persons through a crowdfunding platform ‘our democracy’ and used that money for personal use and thus, misappropriated the funds.

The FIR in the case was registered upon a complaint filed by a woman who claimed to have donated Rs 500 to Gokhale through online mode (Razorpay). Thereafter, Gokhale was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), and 467 (forgery).

While denying Gokhale bail, the High Court bench of Justice Samir J. Dave observed that there is a prima facie case that the amounts collected in the name of welfare were used by the accused for his personal benefit.

Gokhale contended that he was arrested by the Gujarat police on December 6, 2022 after he tweeted that the Prime Minister's visit to Morbi bridge accident site costed the exchequer an amount of Rs. 30 crores. He alleged that it was a case of "political vendetta".