The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha, following its first meeting on the cash-for-query allegations against Mahua Moitra on Thursday, asked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP to appear before it on October 31.
After a meeting of the panel on Thursday, its head and BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar said they will seek assistance from the Ministries of Home Affairs and IT in probing the allegations. Moitra has been asked to appear before the panel on October 31, Sonkar said.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla earlier this month, had stated that Mahua Moitra accepted “bribes” from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions against the Adani conglomerate in Parliament. The allegations by Dubey, which he has since taken to Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and the Lokpal, are based on information provided by lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, which were confirmed by Hiranandani subsequently. Hiranandani, a resident of Dubai, has issued a “sworn affidavit” saying Moitra gave him her Parliament login and password so he could post questions on her behalf.
The panel on Thursday recorded statements of Dehadrai and Nishikant Dubey in connection with the matter.
The Ethics Committee is currently headed by BJP’s Vinod Kumar Sonkar. The other committee members are Vishnu Datt Sharma, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Aparajita Sarangi, Rajdeep Roy, Sunita Duggal, and Subhash Bhamre of the BJP; V Vaithilingam, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Balashowry Vallabbhaneni, and Preneet Kaur of the Congress; Hemant Godse of the Shiv Sena; Giridhari Yadav of the JD(U); P R Natarajan of the CPI(M); and Danish Ali of the BSP.
Moitra had rubbished the allegations, saying that the charges had been levelled at the “behest of businessman Gautam Adani’s group”. She had also claimed on X that she had received a message about an impending CBI raid. “I invite CBI to come home & count my pairs of shoes. But first please file FIR into 13,000 crore coal money Adani stole from Indians,” she tweeted. “Request NIC to please release ALL details of MPs publicly to show they were physically present in place from where IDs were accessed by their PAs and researchers/interns/staff,” she had posted.
(With inputs from agencies)