'Cash-for-Query' case: TMC MP Mahua Moitra appears before ethics panel
NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra, who is at the centre of a bribe-for-query row, appeared before the Ethics Committee of the lower house on Thursday.
The Committee is probing BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey's bribe-for-query allegations against Moitra. The committee has taken assistance from the Union ministries of Home and Information Technology to probe the matter and is believed to have received details from them to its queries.
Dubey has accused Moitra of asking questions, which were keyed in through her parliamentary account, at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani in return for bribes and favours from the Dubai-based scion of a well-known business family.
What has added to Moitra's woes is an alleged affidavit by the businessman in which he admitted to giving bribes to her so that she could ask questions to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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 motive and asserted that the questions were always hers.
She has claimed that Hiranandani was coerced by the government to file the affidavit and has sought to question him during her appearance at the panel, an unlikely eventuality as it is not a standard practice in the working of such parliamentary panels.
The Trinamool Congress MP has claimed that the Adani Group is behind the "bogus" charges due to her strident criticism of the business conglomerate.