The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, which began examining Thursday the cash-for-query allegations against TMC MP Mahua Moitra, asked her to depose before the panel on October 31. During its meeting which lasted more than two hours, the committee heard BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who had complained against Moitra and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai. Committee chairman and BJP MP Vinod Sonkar later told reporters that Moitra had been asked to appear before the panel on October 31. He said the committee also decided to write to the Ministry of Information Technology and Ministry of Home Affairs to share with it all communication and conversations between Moitra, industrialist Darshan Hiranandani and Dehadrai. This decision was taken by the committee after hearing the oral evidence offered by Dehadrai and Dubey Thursday afternoon. Earlier, Dubey had written two letters — one to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, claiming there were allegations that Moitra took bribes to protect the interest of the Hiranandani Group; and the other to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, urging him to investigate the IP addresses of Moitra’s log-in credentials for Lok Sabha to check if they had been accessed by someone else. On October 19, Darshan Hiranandani, CEO of the Hiranandani Group, in an affidavit to the Ethics Committee, claimed 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.” In a three-page affidavit submitted to the committee and released to the press by the Hiranandani Group’s corporate communication team, Darshan Hiranandani, who lives in Dubai, said Moitra “thought that the only way to attack Sh. Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is by attacking Sh. Gautam Adani and his group as both were contemporaries, and they belong to the same state of Gujarat.” Dubey also lodged a complaint against Moitra with the Lokpal. On Thursday, one of the panel members was said to have asked Dehadrai – the TMC MP had called him “a jilted ex” in a social media post – about his connection with Moitra. He did not elaborate on their past relationship and stuck to the affidavit he had submitted to the panel. He was also asked about the legal battle over the custody of a pet dog. Dehadrai later told reporters, “Whatever I was asked, I have told the truth before the committee. No, there was no dispute. All members of the committee inquired cordially. I answered all that I was asked.” Opposition MPs have questioned why the Ethics Committee has chosen to first hear the complainants, Dubey and Dehadrai, before allowing Moitra to record her version. They have pointed out that the Privileges Committee has not yet called BSP MP Danish Ali whose complaint against BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri is pending before the panel. Incidentally, Ali is a member of the Ethics Committee. In a letter to the Speaker, Ali has said that Bidhuri appears to have deposed before the Privileges Committee while he is yet to be called before the panel. Ali had drawn a contrast with the case of Moitra in which the complainants have been called before the TMC member against whom the charges have been made.
