Arrested in 'frivolous' case, BJP mistaken if it thought this would break me: Saket Gokhale
New Delhi, Dec 10: TMC national spokesperson Saket Gokhale alleged on Saturday that his arrest was based on a "frivolous" case over a tweet on the collapse of the Morbi bridge in Gujarat and questioned why those responsible for the tragedy haven't been arrested yet.
Gokhale was arrested on December 6, given bail and arrested again on Thursday. He was given bail again on Friday.
"I was arrested on orders of BJP, got bail, re-arrested, and got bail again - all in a span of 4 days. I'm grateful to the judiciary for upholding my liberty. BJP is hilariously mistaken if they thought this would break me. I'm only going to come at them harder," he said in a tweet.
He further alleged that he was not given a notice for five days after an FIR was filed against him in Ahmedabad.
He claimed the police told him that the IB was tracking him and told the CISF to intercept him at Jaipur airport.
"Ahmedabad Police who were in Delhi for a different case were told to rush to Jaipur to arrest me. A frivolous case was filed for sharing a tweet made by someone else. Funnily the police have no clue who that person is," he alleged.
The TMC leader was first arrested on Tuesday by the Ahmedabad cyber crime police for allegedly spreading fake news, and after he got bail on Thursday, the Morbi police arrested him for the same offence.
On Friday, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate D K Chandrani granted bail to Gokhale on a bail bond of Rs 15,000 in the second case.
On December 1, Gokhale shared a news clipping which cited a purported Right to Information response to claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi after the bridge collapse tragedy on October 30 cost Rs 30 crore.
On Tuesday morning, the Press Information Bureau tweeted that the information was fake.
The prime minister had visited Gujarat on November 1, a day after a colonial-era suspension bridge on the Machchu river in Morbi town collapsed, leaving 135 people dead.
Gokhale took a swipe at Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his arrest. He alleged the aim was to find a way "to target me, throw me into jail, and keep me there.This is the Modi & Shah textbook perfected in UP & Gujarat."
"Ironically I was arrested twice in 3 days for a tweet about Morbi bridge collapse. And till date, the owners of Oreva company who built the faulty bridge haven't even been named in an FIR, let alone arrested. Modi is hurt by a tweet. Not by deaths of 135 innocent people," he said.
Gokhake also alleged the second complaint in Morbi was filed against him on behalf of the Election Commission.
"Surprisingly, the case for electoral interference was filed after polling for both phases was over. EC, however, is ok with communal speeches & roadshows by Modi on poll day," he said.
Gokhale also thanked his party's colleagues and lawyer for supporting him.
"The BJP's problem is that it gets rattled far too easily. Their bigger problem is that throwing me in jail doesn't rattle me one bit.
"The fight only gets stronger from here on," he said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
MP boat tragedy: Death toll rises to 10 with recovery of one more body; 3 tourists still missing
Jabalpur (PTI): The body of a child was retrieved on Saturday evening from Bargi Dam in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy that took place two days ago to ten, while search continued for three missing tourists.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening with some of the survivors alleging negligence and safety lapses such as life jackets not being distributed in time.
The body recovered on Saturday evening was possibly that of six-year-old Viraj Soni, said Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra.
"The identity will be confirmed after family members identify the body," he told PTI.
Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory at Khamaria, his five-year-old son Tamil, and another child Mayuram (5) who had come from southern India were still missing.
Authorities have arranged equipment to search deep waters of the dam and are getting a generator to facilitate diving operations, Mishra added.
Divers and disaster response teams have expanded the search radius to five km, he said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, 28 were rescued, police said.
More than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, joined the search operation that resumed at 5 on Saturday morning. The operation, involving the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, was briefly affected at around 9 am due to strong winds, officials said.
Post-mortem examinations of nine deceased persons have been completed, Mishra said.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will also register a First Information Report in the case soon," he said.
Police said CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat while the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the tragedy and dismissed three crew members. It also banned operation of similar vessels in the state.
