NEW DELHI: Three days after her expulsion from Lok Sabha, in the cash-for-query case, 49-year-old TMC leader Mahua Moitra on Monday knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court, a lawyer connected to the case told TNIE.
"Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and former Lok Sabha MP, Mahua Moitra has filed a petition before the Supreme Court and challenge her expulsion from the lower house of the Parliament and seek relief, in the 'cash-for-query' matter," her lawyer said.
Moitra was ousted from the Parliament last week after the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha found her guilty of jeopardising national security by sharing her parliamentary portal's login credentials with businessman Darshan Hiranandani. The development came soon after an Ethics Committee report on the cash-for-query row was tabled before the Lok Sabha. Opposition members had questioned the procedure followed by the panel and demanded a discussion on the report.
Moitra's lawyer further said that the petition is likely to come up for hearing, within a week or even less than that keeping in view the seriousness and gravity of the case.
"The ethics committee order is unfair, unjust and arbitrary," her petition said.
Following her expulsion, Moitra hit out at the ethics panel for "acting without proof" and said it was becoming a "weapon" to "bulldoze" the Opposition. She alleged that the Ethics Committee and its report "broke every rule in the book".
The New Indian Express had reported on Sunday that Mahua was set to challenge her expulsion in the Supreme Court.
Background
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had approached the Lokpal on October 21 with a complaint against Moitra over allegations of accepting bribes to raise questions in Parliament. Dubey had cited Supreme Court lawyer and Moitra’s estranged partner Jai Anant Dehadrai’s letter which mentioned “irrefutable evidence” of the alleged exchange between Moitra and Hiranandani.
Businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who allegedly paid Moitra to raise questions in Parliament about the Adani Group, had claimed in a signed affidavit that the TMC MP from Krishnanagar targeted industrialist Gautam Adani to "malign and embarrass" Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Moitra has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that she was being targeted as she had raised questions on the deals of the Adani group.
(With Online Desk Inputs)