Cash-for-query row: Delhi HC dismisses petition by Mahua Moitra

Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed an interim plea by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra seeking to restrain BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai from posting allegedly defamatory statements against her.

Justice Sachin Datta, while pronouncing the order, said, “I have dismissed the injunction application.” The high court had reserved its order on the interim application after hearing Moitra, Dubey and Dehadrai on 20 December 2023.

Moitra had sought an ex-parte ad-interim injunction against Dubey and Dehadrai and the removal of the allegedly defamatory content posted against her on social media, including photos, videos and letters.

Moitra was expelled as a Lok Sabha MP on 8 December 2023 after an Ethics panel decided that she was guilty of taking bribes for asking questions in Parliament against business tycoon Gautam Adani. The dispute arose after Dubey wrote a complaint to the Lok Sabha speaker alleging that Moitra purportedly took bribes to ask questions in Parliament, particularly from businessman and Hiranandani Group CEO Darshan Hiranandani, to ask questions.

Dubey underscored that he had a letter from Dehadrai which was “irrefutable” evidence of bribes having been paid to Moitra. In his letter to the Lok Sabha speaker, Dubey claimed 50 of the 61 questions Moitra had asked in the Lok Sabha were focused on the Adani Group, the business conglomerate which the ex-TMC MP has often accused of malpractices.

However, a Newslaundry report found that of the 65 questions Moitra had asked in the Lok Sabha since 2019, only nine were related to the Adani Group, and that her queries ranged from petroleum to agriculture, civil aviation to railways, covering as many as 28 Union ministries.

Moitra had subsequently sent a legal notice to Dubey, Dehadrai and media houses about publishing defamatory material against her.

Last week, Delhi HC had also dismissed Moitra's plea to restrain the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from leaking "confidential, unverified information" to the media in connection with an alleged foreign exchange violation case.

In her plea, Moitra had sought to restrain 19 media houses, including ANI, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Times of India, India Today, NDTV, The Hindu, and The Print from publishing and circulating any "unverified, unconfirmed, false, or derogatory content" in relation to the pending investigation against her.