Businessman Darshan Hiranandani ‘accused’ along with Mahua Moitra in CBI’s ‘cash-for-query’ FIR
Moitra has been accused of accepting cash to ask questions on behalf of businessman and friend Hiranandani.
3 min read
Former TMC MP Mahua Moitra. (Express file photo by Amit Mehra)The FIR registered by CBI Thursday against former TMC MP Mahua Moitra in connection with the alleged cash-for-query case also mentions businessman Darshan Hiranandani as an “accused”.
On Saturday, multiple teams of the CBI had conducted searches at various premises linked to Moitra, across different locations in West Bengal.
Moitra has been accused of accepting cash to ask questions on behalf of businessman and friend Hiranandani. In an interview to The Indian Express on October 27, Moitra admitted she gave her Parliament login and password details to Hiranandani but denied taking any cash from him, as alleged by Supreme Court advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai in his complaint to the CBI.
The CBI FIR, lodged two days after the Lokpal ordered a formal investigation in the case, states, “In compliance of the order dated March 19, a regular case is registered against Moitra, the then Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), Hiranandani, private person and unknown others…Under IPC Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and several Sections of 7, 8 & 12 of PoC Act and substantive offences thereof, on the allegations that Moitra indulged in corrupt practices including, but not limited to, taking bribes and other undue advantages from Hiranandani, private person for compromising her parliamentary privileges and causing national security threats by sharing her login credentials of Lok Sabha.”
The Lokpal had told the central agency to submit a copy of its report within six months.
On December 8, Moitra was expelled from Lok Sabha, which adopted the report of its ethics committee that found her “guilty of unethical conduct” and called for “an intense, legal institutional inquiry” by the government “in a time-bound manner”. After the searches, Moitra posted on X Saturday night, “The CBI came home & to my election offices today. Were very polite. Searched. Found nothing.”
Moitra represented the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat, and has been fielded from the same constituency by the TMC for the Lok Sabha polls.
In October 2023, the cash-for-query allegations took a serious turn with Hiranandani claiming in an affidavit to the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha that Moitra provided him her Parliament login and password so that he could “post the questions” directly “on her behalf when required”. Moitra called the letter “a joke” and said, “The draft of this letter was sent by the PMO and he (Darshan) was forced to sign it.”
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