Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale on Thursday said that the National Human Rights Commission has registered a case of unlawful detention against the Gujarat Police.

“The case is for taking me into illegal custody without a transit remand [and without informing local police] from Jaipur to Ahmedabad,” Gokhale wrote in a tweet.

Earlier this month, Gokhale had been arrested twice within four days over a news clipping he shared on social media about a purported Right to Information application that claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Morbi bridge collapse site cost Rs 30 crore. However, the Press Information Bureau had flagged that the information was fake.

The prime minister had visited Morbi on November 1, a day after the bridge on the Machchu river collapsed, leaving 141 people dead.

Gokhale was first held in Jaipur on December 5 by the Gujarat Police without the knowledge of the Rajasthan Police. He was formally arrested after being brought to Ahmedabad, and subsequently sent to police custody till December 8. The Gujarat Police had alleged that Gokhale tweeted fake news about Modi’s visit to Morbi to get political mileage.

On December 8, an Ahmedabad court granted him bail, but he was soon re-arrested in another case filed in the Morbi district. The Morbi Police accused Gokhale of allegedly “promoting enmity between classes during the elections” apart from spreading fake news about Modi.

On December 9, Gokhale managed to get bail in the second case as well.

The Trinamool Congress spokesperson had filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission, alleging that his detention by the Gujarat Police in the first case was unlawful.

Also read: Why TMC spokesperson’s rearrest after bail may be illegal

In his complaint, Gokhale alleged that his detention at the Jaipur airport violated Section 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code as the police did not obtain a transit remand from a local magistrate before taking him to Gujarat.

The Trinamool Congress leader also claimed that he was in custody of the Gujarat Police for 28 hours before being presented in a court. This, Gokhale alleged, also violated Section 167 of the CrPC as the law mandates that a detainee be produced in a court withing 24 hours of being taken into custody.

“Flouting the law and taking people into illegal custody Gestapo-style in the middle of the night to transport them across state lines has become a hallmark of the BJP,” Gokhale wrote in another tweet on Thursday. “Like I’d said – I’ll fight. And fight stronger than ever.”