Saket Gokhale had taken a Monday night flight from New Delhi to Jaipur in Rajasthan, from where he was โpicked upโ by Gujarat Police, tweeted Derek OโBrien, a senior leader of Bengalโs ruling party.
New Delhi: Accusing the BJP of โpolitical vendettaโ, West-Bengal CM Mamata Banerjeeโs Trinamool Congress has claimed that its spokesperson Saket Gokhale has been arrested by Gujarat Police over a tweet about the Morbi bridge collapse.
The party did not specify which tweet exactly, but the governmentโs fact-check unit had recently pinpointed Mr Gokhaleโs tweet in which he shared what looked like newspaper clippings saying that โRTI revealed the PMโs visit to Morbi cost โน 30 croreโ.
โThis claim is fake,โ the Press Information Bureau (@PIBFactCheck) said.
Quoting an RTI, It is being claimed in a tweet that PMโs visit to Morbi cost โน30 cr.#PIBFactCheck
This claim is #Fake.
No such RTI response has been given. pic.twitter.com/CEVgvWgGTv
โ PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) December 1, 2022
Saket Gokhale had taken a Monday night flight from New Delhi to Jaipur in Rajasthan, from where he was โpicked upโ by Gujarat Police, tweeted Derek OโBrien, a senior leader of Bengalโs ruling party.
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. 1/3
โ Derek O'Brien | เฆกเงเฆฐเงเฆ เฆ'เฆฌเงเฆฐเฆพเฆฏเฆผเงเฆจ (@derekobrienmp) December 6, 2022
โAt 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,โ Mr OโBrien further said.
He said the case against the RTI activist-turned-politician has been โcooked up by the Ahmedabad [police] cyber cell about Saketโs tweet on the Morbi bridge collapseโ. He did not say which tweet.
In Gujaratโs Morbi town, a colonial-era suspension bridge collapsed on October 30, killing over 130 people, just four days after it was reopened upon renovation. The probe has pointed towards failure of the municipal authorities as the renovation contractor allegedly did not follow the norms.
The Rajya Sabha member further said: โAll this cannot silence All India Trinamool Congress and the Opposition. BJP taking political vendetta to another level.โ
Neither the BJP nor the Gujarat government has reacted yet. News agency PTI contacted Jaipur airport police in-charge Digpal Singh, who said: โI have no information. Nobody informed us.โ
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