File photo of TMC’s Saket Gokhale | Photo Credit: PTI
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday took Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale into custody till January 31 to record his statement in connection with alleged irregularities in crowd-funding campaigns.
The ED’s money laundering probe is based on a case registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station in Ahmedabad city against Mr Gokhale and others. He has denied all the allegations.
the state police had He was arrested on December 29 last yearAfter which he was kept in Sabarmati Jail in judicial custody. On Wednesday, the ED produced him before a special court in Ahmedabad which remanded him in the agency’s custody till January 31.
The police case alleges that during 2019-21, Mr. Gokhale sought public assistance in raising funds to carry out his activities as an RTI activist and social worker. He allegedly created a fake electronic document in the name of an entity as “OurDemocracy.in” by which he collected the amount from the complainant, Anand Nagidas Bihola and other persons through one GiantTreetech Pvt Ltd. As alleged, the funds so raised were diverted for personal use.
According to the ED, Mr Gokhale had collected over ₹80 lakh through “OurDemocracy.in” and “Razorpay” payment gateways. He launched three campaigns on online platforms titled “Fight with RTI”, “Saket vs Modi” and “Justice for Suhas Gokhale”. Besides this, a total of ₹23.54 lakh was deposited in his bank account on different occasions. Thus, around ₹1.07 crore was deposited in their accounts through crowd funding and cash deposits.
‘to betray’
Alleging that the funds were not used for the stated cause, the ED said it amounts to breach of trust of the donors.
In his statement to the ED, as submitted in court, Mr Gokhale said the purpose of raising the money was his sustenance and the money was used for the purpose stated in the campaign. On investments in the stock market, the agency said, adding that he had invested Rs 2 crore through crowd funding to get returns, but lost Rs 30 lakh in intra-day trading. The ED alleged that he had done speculative trading and his loss claim was being verified.