Lok Sabha Panel To Hold First Meet On Mahua Moitra Bribery Charge Today

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai are scheduled to record their statements before the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, which will hold its first meeting on the cash-for-query charge against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra today.

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Mr Dubey is the MP who had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and levelled cash-for-query allegations against Ms Moitra. The complaint was based on a letter by Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, who the Trinamool MP has called her “jilted ex”. The Speaker had referred the matter to the ethics committee.

The letter claimed to share “irrefutable evidence” of businessman Darshan Hiranandani giving bribes to Ms Moitra to ask questions in Parliament. The questions were allegedly designed to target the Adani Group.

In an affidavit, Mr Hiranandani had alleged that the Trinamool MP had shared her email ID as a Member of Parliament so that he could send her information and she could raise the questions in the Parliament. He claimed she later gave him her Parliament login and password so that he could post the questions directly.

“Mahua Moitra wanted to quickly make a name for herself at the national level. She was advised by her friends and advisors that the shortest possible route to fame is by personally attacking PM Narendra Modi,” Mr Hiranandani alleged in the affidavit.

“Ms Moitra thought that the only way to attack PM Modi is by attacking Gautam Adani as both were contemporaries and belong to the same state of Gujarat,” the affidavit said.

Mr Dubey and Ms Moitra have been slugging it out on social media since the allegations surfaced. The BJP MP also submitted a complaint to the Lokpal, the anti-corruption watchdog and sought an investigation against Ms Moitra. On Wednesday, he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the Lokpal has taken note of his complaint Last week, lawyer Dehadrai, who had also complained to the CBI, sent a letter to the Delhi Police commissioner claiming that he anticipates “a very serious threat to his life” because of the complaint. He also alleged that a direct attempt was made to coerce him into withdrawing his complaint and threats of harming his reputation were made if he did not agree.

On Tuesday, Information Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw wrote to Mr Dubey over the alleged sharing of her parliamentary login by Ms Moitra and said the matter was “of grave importance”. He said the National Informatics Centre would cooperate with the Parliamentary Ethics Committee in investigating the matter.

Ms Moitra has denied the allegations and said she is prepared for any inquiry. She has also said that she is ready to answer questions from the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee.

Neither The Trinamool Congress nor its INDIA allies have come out in support of Ms Moitra so far. The Trinamool has said it will not comment on the case. The party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, has said the party will take an appropriate decision on the allegations against Ms Moitra after the Parliamentary panel completes its investigation.