Cash for query: LS Ethics Committee summons Mahua Moitra on 31 Oct

The Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha has summoned Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra to appear before it on 31 October in connection with the cash-for-query allegation against her.

On Thursday, BJP leader Nishikant Dubey, who had lodged a complaint against Mahua Moitra with the Lok Sabha speaker, and advocate and Moitra's former partner Jay Anant Dehadrai appeared before the Ethics Committee chaired by Vinod Sonkar and recorded their statements.

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla had referred the matter to the Ethics Committee for investigation.

The panel had summoned Dubey and the advocate over their allegations against Mahua Moitra of receiving cash and gifts from real estate developer Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for asking questions against the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament.

Posting on X on 21 October, Moitra hinted that she has turned down two peace offerings from the Adani Group. “Sorry Mr Adani. I am not taking your deal to shut up for six months,” she wrote.

In the same post, she went on to say that she was not taking up the ‘second deal’ either, under which she would be free to attack Adani but not the prime minister. She did not provide details of how or when the offers had been conveyed to her.

A day earlier, Moitra had alleged that it was the prime minister's office which "held a gun to Hiranandani’s head" to extract the statement against her, and that he was given 20 minutes to sign an affidavit and told that if he refused, PSU banks would stop financing his projects, CBI raids would be conducted, and he would lose all business from the government.

The defiant MP concluded the statement by stating, “They cannot scare me… I will continue to stand up… I will pay any price to protect my country from these criminals”.