The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to RTI (Right To Information) activist-turned Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale in an alleged misappropriation of funds case registered against him at Ahmedabad.
“Taking into consideration that the charge sheet has already been filed, the applicant is directed to be released on bail,” said a bench of justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath.
Gokhale was arrested by the Gujarat police on December 29 from Delhi and had approached the top court against the rejection of his bail by the Gujarat high court in February.
The case pertains to the alleged misuse of money he had collected through crowdfunding during the Covid pandemic where he had allegedly collected money from over 1,700 persons through a crowdfunding platform “Our Democracy” which was supposed to be used for legal aid, journalism and other public purposes.
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However, police found out that the money was spent allegedly spent for his personal needs.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju representing state, opposed bail claiming that the allegations were serious.
The bench remarked, “He (Gokhale) is known for his right to information (RTI) campaigns. Why are you keeping him behind bars?”
Senior advocate Siddharth Agarwal appearing for Gokhale said the latter has been behind bars for 109 days.
In March, the top court had issued a notice to Gujarat police on Gokhale’s plea for bail.
A complaint was filed against him by a woman who claimed to have contributed ₹500 to the crowdfunding initiative launched by the TMC spokesperson.
She accused Gokhale of cheating, criminal breach of trust and forgery – all which are punishable offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
He is also facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over alleged money laundering charges.
The HC while denying bail to Gokhale examined his bank accounts and concluded that whether some transactions were done for his personal use is a question of fact to be decided based on evidence during trial and this aspect cannot be answered at the stage of investigation. The high court, therefore, had denied bail and asked him to cooperate with the probe.
During that time, the charge sheet was not filed.