Today, in the matter of Saket Suhas Gokhale v. State of Gujarat, the Bench of the Supreme Court of India headed by Justice BR Gavai and Vikram Nath issued to the Gujrat State Government to issue Notice.
Activist Saket Gokhale filed an appeal challenging the Orderes of the Gujarat High Court, refusing to grant him bail in connection with a misappropriation of funds case. Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Gokhale.
The High Court had noted that there was a prima facie case against Gokhale. The Gujarat High Court has held that as per the statements of witnesses, he received money not only from the wife of the complainant but also from 1,767 persons. These amounts, the Court noted, were collected using social media and most transactions were online.
Last year on December 28, 2022, a complaint was lodged against Gokhale by a deputy secretary in the State government, alleging that his wife had paid some amount as a contribution to the crowdfunding initiated by the TMC leader.
These funds were to be used for the welfare of poor people. However, it was alleged that Gokhale misappropriated the funds for his personal expenses.
On the Contrary, Gokhale had argued that he was being targeted and was a victim of a political vendetta. He had claimed before the Gujarat High Court that he has been framed in this case, as the government wants him to be in jail.
Notably, Gokhale was first arrested on December 6 last year for a news clipping of a Right to Information (RTI) response he shared on Twitter stating that an amount of ₹30 crore was spent ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi, where the century-old suspension bridge had collapsed in October. He was, however, granted bail on December 8 in this case. As soon as he was released, he was immediately arrested by the Cyber Cell of the Ahmedabad Police in the misappropriation of funds case.
Advocate Mithu Jain appeared in the Supreme Court on the Behalf of Saket Suhas Gokhale
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