Gujarat Police detain TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale over tweet on PM's visit

PTI

Ahmedabad, December 6

Gujarat Police have detained Trinamool Congress national spokesperson Saket Gokhale over a tweet endorsing an alleged fake news about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi after a bridge collapse incident there, an official said on Tuesday.

Gokhale was apprehended from Jaipur during the early hours of Tuesday by officials of the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Cyber Crime, Jitendra Yadav, said.

"Based on a complaint, an FIR has been lodged against Gokhale for spreading fake news about the PM's visit to Morbi. We detained him from Jaipur this morning and he is being brought here for the legal process," Yadav said, adding that a formal arrest would be made after he underwent a covid-19 test.

The FIR was registered under Sections 465, 469, 471 (all for forgery) and 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of the IPC, police said.

Gokhale recently tweeted a news clipping that apparently was published in a Gujarati newspaper.

The news clipping claimed that a query under the RTI had revealed that the Gujarat government had spent Rs 30 crore on PM Modi's visit to Morbi after a bridge collapsed there in October.

The bridge tragedy had claimed 135 lives.

Citing the news clipping which he attached in his tweet, Gokhale said, "RTI reveals that Modi's visit to Morbi for a few hours cost Rs 30 crore...Just Modi's event management and PR costs more than the lives of 135 innocent people." 

ACP Jadhav said, "When we contacted the Gujarat Samachar, the management said the news was never published and it was fake and created to look authentic. Thus we have detained Gokhale for spreading fake news."