November 02, 2024 20:58 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Andhra Pradesh: Three-year-old girl raped and murdered by relative in Tirupati | Two terrorists killed in encounter with security forces in Kashmir's Anantnag | Bengal: 5-year-old girl raped and murdered in Alipurduar, accused beaten to death by angry villagers | Kashmir: Encounter breaks out between security forces and terrorists in Srinagar | Mumbai Police initiates extradition process to bring back Lawrence Bishnoi's brother Anmol Bishnoi from US
Saket Gokhale's arrest sad, vindictive attitude of Centre: Mamata Banerjee
Saket Gokhale arrest
Image Credit: Facebbok/ Mamata Banerjee

Saket Gokhale's arrest sad, vindictive attitude of Centre: Mamata Banerjee

| @indiablooms | 06 Dec 2022, 09:48 pm

Ajmer/IBNS: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited Ajmer Sharif Tuesday, called Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale's arrest 'sad' and said this is a 'vindictive attitude' of the Centre.

Speaking to reporters at Ajmer Sharif over Saket Gokhale's arrest, Mamata Banerjee said: "It's very bad and sad. Salet is a very important and bright man. His social network is very popular. He has done no mistake. What was his fault that he tweeted against the Prime Minister? Our government faces such tweets so many times.

"Yes of course caution should be exercised while tweeting that it doesn't jeopardise the country's security. But he tweeted about the Morbi tragedy as so many people died. We feel very sorry for him and this vindictive attitude is not tolerable to me," she said.

Saket Gokhale, the Trinamool's national spokesperson, was detained late last night in Jaipur for a tweet allegedly spreading "fake news" on PM Modi.

The arrest followed BJP leader Amit Kothari's police complaint in Ahmedabad.

Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien on Tuesday alleged that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has taken 'political vendetta' to another level.

He said Saket was 'picked up' by the police after he reached Jaipur city in Rajasthan.

"TMC national spokesperson@SaketGokhale arrested by Gujarat Police. Saket took a 9pm flight from New Delhi to Jaipur on Mon. When he landed, Gujarat Police was at the airport in Rajasthan waiting for him and picked him up," Derek tweeted.

"The cooked-up case is filed with the Ahmedabad cyber cell about Saket’s tweet on the Morbi bridge collapse. All this cannot silence @AITCofficialand the Opposition. BJP taking political vendetta to another level," he said.

Gokhale will face charges like forgery, which could lead to five years in jail.

The Dec 1 tweet cited a Right to Information (RTI) reply that "revealed the PM's visit to Morbi cost the Gujarat government ₹ 30 crore", far more than the compensation given to victims (a total of ₹ 5 crore). This was flagged as "fake" by the government's fact-check unit the same day.

Over 130 people were killed in Gujarat's Morbi town when a renovated colonial-era bridge collapsed in October.

PM Modi visited the town in his home state on Nov 1, and met the injured, besides going to the tragedy site.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.