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TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale arrested over tweet on Morbi bridge
Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale was arrested by Ahmedabad police on Tuesday in connection with a tweet he posted about the Morbi bridge collapse incident
Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale was arrested by Ahmedabad police on Tuesday in connection with a tweet he posted about the Morbi bridge collapse incident, a senior officer familiar with the matter said.
According to the officer, who did not want to be named, the tweet pertains to alleged fake news regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit on November 1 to the site of the bridge collapse in Morbi in which a 135 people were killed.
Gokhale had tweeted a clipping of an alleged Right to Information (RTI) query reply and wrote that the PM’s visit had cost ₹30 crore. On December 1, the Press Information Bureau had denied the authenticity of the RTI response. “This claim is fake. No such RTI response has been given,” it said.
The complaint against Gokhale over the tweet was filed by an Ahmedabad resident. A team of the cyber crime department detained the RTI-activist-turned-politician when he arrived in Rajasthan’s Jaipur from New Delhi early on Tuesday morning, said the officer.
“Gokhale has been produced before a court in Ahmedabad and has been put under arrest,” the official said, adding that the FIR has not been put in public domain due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Speaking to reporters after the court hearing, Gokhale said that police took action against him while the owner of Oreva — the company given the contract to refurbish and maintain the suspension bridge — has still not been arrested. “This the irony,” he said as he climbed into the police van.
The TMC top brass hit out at the arrest calling it an act of intimidation.
Party chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee condemned the government’s “vindictive attitude”.
“It’s a very bad, and sad (incident). Saket is a bright man. He is very popular on social media. He has made no mistake... I condemn this vindictive attitude. He (Saket) has been arrested because he tweeted against the Prime Minister. People also tweet against me... We are really feeling sorry about the situation,” she said at Jaipur airport before heading to Pushkar.
Senior TMC leader Derek O’Brien tweeted the timeline of events that led to Gokhale’s arrest.
“At 2 in the morning on Tuesday, he called his Ma 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,” he wrote.
O’Brien alleged that the case has been “cooked up by the Ahmedabad cyber cell about Saket’s tweet on the Morbi bridge collapse”.
TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee described the arrest as a reaction of a “panic stricken” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
TMC will not bow down to such “acts of intimidation”, he said.
“Fearless, Gokhale stood against the ruling dispensation that trades lives for its own profit. In reaction, panic-stricken @BJP4India got our national spokesperson @SaketGokhale arrested by Gujarat police. It is their folly to think these acts of intimidation will make us to bow down!,” Banerjee tweeted.
Gujarat BJP leader Zubin Ashara retorted saying the law was taking its course.
“The IT (information technology) Act has very clear provisions and if somebody is trying to violate (them), the law will take its course. Gujarat police has taken the right steps against those trying to defame Gujarat by posting fake posts about the ill-fated Morbi tragedy,” he said.
(WITH AGENCY INPUTS)
