Trouble for TMC MP Saket Gokhale, Ahmedabad court frames charges under money-laundering Act

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said a special PMLA court in Ahmedabad has framed criminal charges against TMC's Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale under the anti-money laundering Act 2002.

"The Ld. Principal District and Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad (Rural) and designated Special Court PMLA, Ahmedabad today framed criminal charges against Saket Gokhale, MP Rajya Sabha and national spokesperson of All India Trinamool Congress under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002...," the ED said in a statement.

The money laundering case against Gokhale, 31-year-old TMC MP, stems from a Gujarat Police FIR concerning the alleged misuse of money he had collected through crowd-funding.

A charge sheet was filed against the TMC Rajya Sabha MP under the anti-money laundering law last year.

"Charges against him for the scheduled offence in the police case (Gujarat Police) had also been framed," the federal enforcement agency said.

The ED further said the PMLA special court had rejected the application filed by Gokhale under Section 309 of the CrPC for keeping the proceedings under PMLA, 2002 in abeyance till the case of scheduled offence registered against him is decided by the court.

The state police arrested Gokhale from Delhi in December 2022 in a case of alleged misuse of money he had collected through crowd-funding by "portraying himself" as an RTI activist and a social worker.

"The crowdfunded amount was utilised by him for his personal expenses such as intraday trading in shares, payment of his credit card dues, shopping through online apps such as Paytm, Swiggy, Zomato, crypto currency trading and other miscellaneous (transactions)," PTI quoted the ED as saying. Gokhale, however, denied any misuse of the funds.

Defamation case against Gokhale

Earlier in July, the Delhi High Court ordered Saket Gokhale to pay ₹50 lakhs in damages to Lakshmi Puri, the wife of Union Minister Hardeep Puri, for defamation.

This came after Lakshmi Puri filed a defamation suit against Gokhale for making harmful statements on social media.