Mumbai: Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale on Wednesday claimed that he received an Income Tax department's show-cause notice minutes within his heated exchange with the Mumbai Police on social media site X. Gokhale and Mumbai Police indulged in a war of words on the micro-blogging website over a news report that claimed the city police had arrested a gang for extortion from a businessman. The report claimed that the Police found incriminating ED documents with the gang during the arrest.
What exactly happened?
The Mumbai Police on Wednesday took to social media site X to warn TMC MP Saket Gokhale against spreading what it called a 'factually incorrect' news regarding documents of Enforcement Directorate (ED) being found in possession of a gang arrested by the Mumbai Police for extorting Rs 100 crore from a businessman.
Saket Gokhale, sharing a news cutting of the same, had written, "EXTREMELY SHOCKING: Is ED extorting money using gangs for BJP funds? Mumbai Police has arrested a gang that extorted over ₹100 crores from businessmen. How did they do it? They had OVER 200 confidential investigation files belonging to the ED with them & used those. How were these copies leaked by the ED to a criminal gang? Or is the ED targeting companies & then handing over their files to criminal gangs to outsource extortion of money for BJP funds? And why is the TV media completely silent on this?"
Mumbai Police, responding to Gokhale's post on X, called the news 'factually incorrect' and informed that the editor of the newspaper involved in disseminating the information has also been contacted. The matter, however, escalated when the the Mumbai Police warned of legal consequences to Gokhale's 'motivated act'.
"The News report quoted by you is factually incorrect and we have communicated to the editor of the newspaper concerned . You have distorted the news further with your insinuations to suit your narrative. Your apparently motivated act has legal consequences, please note," Mumbai Police wrote in its reply.
Before the post was removed by the Mumbai Police handle, irked Gokhale questioned whether the Mumbai Police was threatening 'a sitting MP'?
"Are you threatening a sitting MP, @MumbaiPolice? Are you aware of this @CPMumbaiPolice? Please be in touch. If the news report was incorrect, where was your statement? And if you don’t apologize for this threat, rest assured I’ll see you in the Supreme Court very soon,' Gokhale wrote.
As the tweet was taken down, Gokhale took to X again to inform that he has received a show cause notice from the Income Tax department.
"THIS is how Modi’s agencies work: I shared an article from @mid_day which reported that Mumbai Police had arrested a gang extorting money from people using ED files. At 6:46pm, @MumbaiPolice openly threatens me. At 6:50pm, I get a show cause from IT Dept. Democracy?" Gokhale wrote, while attaching screengrabs of Mumbai Police's deleted tweet and email of show cause notice from IT department.
Gokhale further questioned why the tweet posted from Mumbai Police's handle was taken down. "And now @MumbaiPolice have quietly deleted their tweet. I expect a clarification on this, @CPMumbaiPolice. Who runs the @MumbaiPolice X handle & posted that threat to me? If you’re threatening a sitting MP & making political insinuations, you need to explain NOW," he wrote.
