West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday condemned the detention of Trinamool Congress (TMC) national spokesperson Saket Gokhale and called it a “vendetta”, without naming any political party.
“It is very bad and sad. Saket is a very important and bright man. He is very popular on social media. He has done no mistake. He was coming to Jaipur. We are really upset. I condemn this vindictive attitude,” Banerjee told reporters at Jaipur airport.
The Gujarat Police earlier in the day detained Gokhale over a tweet about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Morbi following the bridge collapse that left 135 people dead there in October.
Gokhale allegedly shared what looked like a news clipping of a response under the Right to Information Act (RTI), claiming ₹30 crore was spent on PM Modi’s visit.
“He was detained at 2 am on Tuesday and taken to Ahmedabad for a tweet against the prime minister. There are so many tweets against me. Cyber-crime, in which the security of the nation is under threat or there is a personal attack against somebody, is a punishable offence. But the Morbi incident was big. He tweeted about the news on the incident,” Banerjee said.
A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gokhale was picked up from Rajasthan’s Udaipur and taken to Ahmedabad for the probe.
{{/usCountry}}A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gokhale was picked up from Rajasthan’s Udaipur and taken to Ahmedabad for the probe.
{{/usCountry}}Also Read:Gujarat Police detain TMC’s Saket Gokhale over tweet about Modi’s Morbi visit
TMC leader Derek O’Brien said Gokhale took a Monday night flight from New Delhi before he was picked up from Rajasthan.
“At 2 in the morning on Tuesday, he called his Ma [mother] and told her that they are taking him to Ahmedabad and he would reach Ahmedabad by noon today. The police let him make that one two-minute phone call and then confiscated his phone and all his belongings,” O’Brien said in a tweet.
The BJP hit back on the allegations, and cited the arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra, a Jadavpur University professor who was arrested in 2012 after he forwarded an email containing a cartoon on the West Bengal CM.
“Remember Mahapatra? The West Bengal government is most intolerant and vindictive. Why shouldn’t a man, who is spreading fake news against the Prime Minister on his visit to a tragedy site, be arrested?” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP’s spokesperson in West Bengal.
Banerjee visited Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan on Tuesday, and offered a ‘chadar’ at the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, and visited the Brahma Temple and ghat at Pushkar to offer prayers.
People raised ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans when Banerjee was leaving Pushkar.