Leader of the Trinamool Congress Mahua Moitra filed a complaint with the Supreme Court on Monday, challenging her contentious removal from the Lok Sabha in the 'pay for query' corruption scandal from last week.
Businessman Darshan Hiranandani allegedly offered Ms. Moitra, 49, bribes of ₹ 2 crore in cash and "luxury gift items" in exchange for her raising pointed questions of the administration in Parliament. She was also charged with giving out the login information for a private account on the legislative website so that Mr. Hiranandani could publish those queries without consent.
The TMC leader, who stood for West Bengal's Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency, claimed that when the ethics panel's findings was discussed in the House, she was not given the opportunity to explain herself. She added that she was unable to cross-examine BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and her ex-partner, Supreme Court attorney Jai Anant Dehadrai, who had made the "cash-for-query" accusations against her.
Dubey brought up the accusations against Moitra, claiming that the TMC was questioning Hiranandani "in exchange for cash and gifts" in Parliament. The letter from counsel Dehadrai, which mentioned "irrefutable evidence" of the purported conversation between Moitra and Hiranandani, was quoted by the BJP MP.
Then, in a letter to the ethics committee, Hiranandani stated that Moitra had given him her Parliamentary login credentials so he could "post questions on her behalf". Later, Moitra acknowledged—in an exclusive interview with India Today TV—that she had given Hiranandani her Parliament login credentials so that someone in his office could write in the questions to be answered in the Lok Sabha. The TMC leader came before the ethics committee on November 2, but she and other opposition leaders left the meeting due to the questions that were asked of her. The chairman of the ethics commission was charged with posing "personal questions" to Mahua Moitra.
Moitra was eventually removed from her position as a Lok Sabha MP after the commission accepted its report about the accusations made against her.
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