The Gujarat High Court dismissed a bail application filed by Saket Gokhale, National Spokesperson of TMC who is booked in a case of misappropriating funds collected in an online campaign by saying "Appears funds raised were utilised for personal expenses".

While dismissing the bail petition Justice Samir Dave noted that there was prima facie case against Gokhale.

The order says that, "It appears that there are serious allegations against the applicant. The Investigation is going on and the charge sheet is yet to be filed....it appears that funding raised for the welfare of the people was utilized by the applicant for his personal expenses".

The court said that it appears that the prosecution has clearly established a prima facie case against the accused, the Court added while denying him bail by its order dated January 23.

The Court said that as per the statements of witnesses, Gokhale received money not only from the wife of the complainant but also from 1,767 other persons.

The order says that "There are many transactions, which appear to have been done on prima-facie going through the bank account statement, so it cannot be denied that some transactions might be done for his personal usage or not, which is a question of fact and can only be decided by evidence at the time of trial and not at the stage of investigation when the charge sheet is yet to be filed". 

As per the prosecution case, a complaint was lodged against Gokhale by a deputy secretary in the State government on 28th December 2022 alleging that his wife had paid some amount as a contribution to the crowdfunding initiated by the TMC leader. This funds was to be used for the welfare of poor people but it is alleged that Gokhale misappropriated the funds for his personal uses.