Mahua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress will appear before the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on Thursday, November 2, in the alleged ‘cash-for-query’ scam. She also has asked the ethics committee for permission to cross-examine the alleged ‘bribe giver’ Darshan Hiranandani and complainant advocate Jai Dehadrai.
Top points on Mahua Moitra’s ‘cash-for-query’ case:
1. On Wednesday, Moitra, a TMC Lok Sabha MP, made public her letter to the ethics committee chairman and BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar. Posting the two-page letter on her X handle, Moitra said, “Since the Since Ethics Committee deemed it fit to release my summons to the media I think it is important I too release my letter to the Committee before my “hearing” tomorrow”.
2. In her letter, Moitra alleged that advocate Dehadrai had provided no documentary evidence to back his allegations in either his written complaint and neither could he provide any evidence in his oral hearing. “I wish to place on record that in keeping with the principles of natural Justice I wish to exercise my right to cross-examine Hiranandani,” she added.
3. Sources privy to the matter on Wednesday told news agency PTI that nearly 47 log-ins to Moitra’s parliamentary account were made from Dubai. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has accused Moitra of asking questions, which were keyed in through her parliamentary account, at the behest of Hiranandani in return for bribes and favours from the Dubai-based scion of a well-known business family. Moitra has admitted that she shared her log-in credentials with Hiranandani, whom she has described as a close friend for a long time, but has ruled out any pecuniary motivation and asserted that the questions were always hers.
4. Dubey referred to “media reports” that her log-in was opened 47 times from Hiranandani’s place in Dubai and as many questions were asked in Parliament. “If this news is true, then all the MPs of the country should stand against Mahua ji’s corruption. Hiranandani asked questions in Lok Sabha for Hiranandani. Are we MPs for promoting selfish interests of capitalists,” Dubey said on X.
5. Dubey has claimed that Hiranandani and Moita remain in touch and that attempts are allegedly being made to influence witnesses.
6. Hiranandani had submitted an affidavit admitting to the allegations that he bribed Moitra to target the Adani Group and also Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Moitra has alleged that the businessman filed the affidavit under coercion.
7. In her letter to the committee, she said on Friday, “I wish to place on record that any enquiry without the oral evidence of Shri Hiranandani will be incomplete, unfair and akin to holding a proverbial ‘kangaroo court’ and that he too will need to be called to depose before the Committee before it prepares its final report.”
8. In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla dated October 15, Dubey said advocate Dehadrai, close to Moitra before they fell out, has shared “irrefutable evidence of bribes exchanged” between her and businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
9. Birla had referred the matter to the Ethics Committee.
10. The TMC firebrand MP has dismissed the charges as a “jilted ex’s lies”, a reference to Dehadrai, and accused the Adani Group of being behind them as she has been relentless in questioning the conglomerate’s practices and transactions.
(With inputs from agencies)
