The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson and RTI activist Saket Gokhale in connection with a case related to alleged misuse of money collected through crowdfunding, reported Bar and Bench.
A two-judge bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath said that it was while granting relief to the leader, noted that a charge sheet has already been filed in the case.
Gokhale was arrested by the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch from Delhi on December 30 last year and charged under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 467 (forgery) of the IPC.
He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in January. The central probe agency had stated that Gokhale used a significant portion of more than Rs one crore he collected through crowdfunding for “wining and dining”, intra-day trading in the stock market, and for treatment of family members, reported The Indian Express.
The ED further claimed that he told the agency that he had received Rs 23.5 lakh from the Congress party by one Shankar Swai for “social media work and other consulting”.
The ED’s remand application pointed out that between 2019 and 2021, Gokhale ran three crowdfunding campaigns — “FightWithRTI”, “SaketVersusModi” and “JusticeForSuhasGokhale” — through online platform ourdemocracy.in to allegedly fund his public interest activities. These generated funds of over Rs 80 lakh, and he received cash deposit of Rs 23.54 lakh in his account.
It alleged that Gokhale had used Rs 30 lakh of these funds to pay his personal credit card bills, and “other personal expenses”, including “purchase of liquor”, “wining and dining”.
Gokhale joined the TMC in August last year.