Special PMLA court frames charges against Trinamool MP Saket Gokhale

Ahmedabad, Aug 13 (IANS) A special PMLA court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday framed criminal charges against Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Saket Gokhale under the anti-money laundering law. 

Sharing the information, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a post on X, “The Hon’ble Principal District and Sessions Judge, Ahmedabad (Rural), and Designated Special Court (PMLA), Ahmedabad, today, i.e., 13.08.2024, framed criminal charges against Saket Gokhale, MP, Rajya Sabha, and National Spokespersons of All India Trinamool Congress, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, in the Prosecution Complaint PMLA/02/2023 filed by ED. Charges against him for Scheduled offence in Police case have also been framed.”

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

According to the probe agency, Gokhale was arrested by the ED on January 25, 2023, under PMLA for the offence of money laundering wherein the amount was crowdfunded to him by the public as he portrayed 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 Swiggy, Zomato, and crypto currency trading, among others," the agency said.

In December 2022, Gujarat Police arrested Gokhale from Delhi for allegedly misusing funds collected through crowdfunding.

The ED informed the court that Gokhale had allegedly misused a substantial amount of money raised through crowdfunding for speculative share trading, dining, and other personal expenses, which they described as 'extravagant'. Gokhale, however, denied any misuse of the funds.

A special court had granted regular bail to Gokhale in May last year in the money laundering case related to alleged irregularities.

In July this year, the Delhi High Court directed Gokhale to pay Rs 50 lakh in damages to Lakshmi Puri, wife of Union Minister Hardeep Puri, in a defamation case. 

The defamation suit was filed by Lakshmi Puri in response to harmful statements made by Gokhale on social media.