TMC Spokesperson Saket Gokhale Detained by Gujarat Police: What We Know

Officials said that a senior BJP member has filed a complaint over Gokhale's tweet about the Morbi bridge collapse.

File Photo of RTI activist Saket Gokhale.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Saket Gokhale)

Gujarat Police on Tuesday, 6 December, detained Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale in Jaipur. Here's all that you need to know.

What are police officials saying? Officials have said that a senior BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) functionary has filed a complaint against Gokhale over his tweet about the Morbi bridge collapse.

What had Gokhale tweeted? He wrote on Twitter that an RTI (Right to Information) revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Morbi "for a few hours had cost rupees 30 crore." You can see the full tweet attached below.

How had the government responded? The central government's fact-check unit of the Press Information Bureau claimed that Gokhale's claim was fake.

What has Gokhale been booked for? Gokhale has been booked under the following sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC):

• 469 ("forgery for purpose of harming reputation")

• 471 ("using as genuine a forged [document or electronic record]")

• 501 ("printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory")

• 505(b) (statements conducing to public mischief)

What is the Trinamool Congress saying? The party led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has alleged that Gokhale's arrest is part of the BJP's "political vendetta."

Additionally, Derek O'Brien, in a series of tweets, narrated the entire incident. "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 in one tweet.

What had happened in Morbi? At least 141 people died after a suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Gujarat's Morbi collapsed on 30 October.