ED has said Gokhale collected over Rs 1 crore between 2019 and 2022 through crowdfunding campaigns on social media.
NEW DELHI: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson and self-proclaimed “RTI activist” Saket Gokhale was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last week for misappropriation of funds collected from the general public. ED said he used collected funds for “wining and dining”, trading stocks, and meeting his personal expenses like that of paying his personal credit card bills and that of the treatment of his family members.
The ED in its remand application presented before a special court in Ahmedabad said that Gokhale collected over Rs one crore between 2019 and 2022 through crowdfunding campaigns that he ran on social media but instead of using the funds for the intended purposes of filing RTI requests and meeting public interest activities, a significant amount of the money was spent by him in activities other than the reasons he had collected the huge some.
From the total amount of Rs 1,07,30,133 collected by Gokhale, he had only used Rs 4000 towards filing of RTI between 2019 and 2022. A significant amount of the money was used for the health and legal expenses of his father, Suhas Gokhale. Gokhale also reportedly admitted to using a portion of the funds for the treatment of his uncle at a de-addiction and rehabilitation center in Nashik, Maharashtra.
According to the ED statement, Rs six Lakh was used for meeting the health and legal expenses of his father. However, Saket Gokhale refused to divulge the amount of money spent on his uncle in the de-addiction centre.
Furthermore, Gokhale used Rs 30 lakh of the collected funds for intra-day trading at the stock market and suffered a loss of Rs 30 lakhs. He also used another Rs 30 lakh to pay his credit bills. Not only this, Gokhale also used a significant amount of money towards liquor purchases, and dining and wining expenses.
According to the ED, Gokhale had allegedly prepared an electronic document in the name of an institution “Ourdemocracy.in” which he used to collect funding and this funding was routed through a company named “M/S Gianttreetech private limited”, which he diverted and used for meeting his personal needs.
Ourdemocracy.in is now a defunct website, while M/S Gianttreetech private limited is a company registered in Delhi’s Saket. This company was only set up in December 2020. The said company currently has two directors – Bilal Zaidi and Shivam Solanki.
Bilal Zaidi between 2014 and 2017 was a news reporters who worked with at least two national news channels in India, post which he turned towards crowdfunding and is claimed to have set up the website or the electronic document “ourdemocracy.in” which was being used by Saket Gokhale to run crowdfunding campaigns and raise money from the general public.
Bilal Zaidi is also a director in another company called, “BZ Studio 92 Private Limited”, registered at the same address in Saket in Delhi. This said company was started by Zaidi in July 2016 and claims to be indulging in “Business activities n.e.c”.
The ED application also mentions that Gokhale between 2019 to 2022 ran three crowdfunding campaigns — “FightWithRTI”, “SaketVersusModi” and “JusticeForSuhasGokhale” through online platform ourdemocracy.in to allegedly fund his public interest activities.
These campaigns generated funds of over Rs 80 lakh, and he received a cash deposit of Rs 23.54 lakh in his account, during the said period, but most of the money was used for his personal expenses.
Interestingly, according to the ED remand application, the cash deposit of Rs 23.54 lakh in Gokhale’s account was made by one Shankar Sawai on behalf of the Congress for some “social media work and other consulting”.
However, the ED, argued that the said money was deposited in Gokhale’s account in November 2021, while he had joined the TMC in August that year.
Gokhale claimed innocence, informing the ED during questioning that he had mentioned in his crowdfunding campaigns that he is raising the money also to meet his personal expenses. However, the platform owner of ourdemocracy.in has reportedly told the ED that no such disclaimer was provided by Gokhale on the platform during the campaign period.
Gokhale also denied using money raised from crowdfunding for the purchase of liquor and wining and dining, the ED argued in the remand application that Gokhale had himself told the agency that he had no other means of income and that he had also raised money for his personal expenses and sustenance.
The ED has prime facie found evidences of money laundering and have arrested Gokhale from Gujarat for further questioning under several sections of the PMLA Act 2002.
The ED also said that Gokhale was not cooperating with the agency and was concealing facts. It is also pertinent to mention here that Gokhale was already in the custody of the Gujarat police as he was earlier arrested in December from Ahmedabad on charges of cybercrime and misappropriation of public funds.