Lok Sabha Speaker Sends 'Bribe For Query' Complaint Against TMC MP Mahua Moitra To Ethics Committee

“Mahua Moitra is a highly educated lady who had an illustrious career as a banker before she took the political plunge. On the other hand, the one who is coming up with nonsense against her is known to the media for various wrongdoings, which include...





Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra filed a defamation suit on Tuesday against Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey, Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai and several news organisations in the Delhi high court.

The development comes after Dubey and Dehadrai alleged that Moitra received cash and gifts as bribes to ask questions in the Lok Sabha, a claim that she denied as “completely baseless”.

According to Bar and Bench, the matter is likely to be heard by Justice Sachin Datta on Friday, October 20.

Dubey had on Sunday written to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla accusing Moitra of taking ‘bribes’ from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in parliament. He said Dehadrai had given him “irrefutable evidence” of this arrangement.

In a legal notice sent on Monday, the TMC MP said that Dehadrai was her close friend with whom she had a falling out. She accused him of criminal trespass and theft, among other things. The allegations he made to Dubey are part of his vendetta against her, she said.

The Hiranandani Group rejected the allegations. “We have always been in the business of business and not in the business of politics. Our group has always worked with the government in the interest of the nation and will continue doing so,” a statement issued by the group said.

On Tuesday, Birla referred Dubey’s complaint against Moitra to the ethics committee of the lower House, which is chaired by BJP member Vinod Kumar Sonkar.
In his letter to the speaker, Dubey said 50 of 61 questions she asked in Lok Sabha till recently were focused on the Adani Group, the business conglomerate which the TMC MP has often accused of malpractices, more so after it was at the receiving end of a critical report of short-selling from Hindenburg.