NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday registered a money laundering case against Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra in the cash-for-query probe. Last month, Moitra was re-nominated by the TMC from the same Krishnanagar seat after being expelled in 2023.
Moitra was summoned thrice by the probe agency, which she skipped. Last week, she skipped an ED summons in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) contravention case. Apart from Moitra, Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani was also asked to depose before the agency.
She is accused of receiving cash and gifts from Hiranandani in exchange for her Parliament login credentials. It all started after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had accused Moitra of asking questions in the Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the behest of Hiranandani in exchange for gifts.
Dubey, on October 14, 2022, had stirred a hornet’s nest after he wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking an inquiry against Moitra and her immediate suspension from the House for taking cash for asking Parliament Questions.
Dubey had said that he is in receipt of a letter from Jai Anant Dehadrai, Advocate, wherein, he has shared irrefutable evidence of bribes exchanged between Moitra and Darshan Hiranandani, a well known business tycoon, to ask questions in Parliament in exchange for ‘cash’ and ‘gifts’.
He had also accused Moitra of compromising national security for monetary gains.