Cash for query: Ethics panel report on Mahua Moitra to be tabled in Lok Sabha tomorrow
Dec 07, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 7 : The report of the Ethics Committee on Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra in an alleged "cash-for-query" case is scheduled to be tabled in the Lower House on Friday.
As per the revised list of business of Lok Sabha, the Ethics Panel's chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar and member Aparajita Sarangi will lay on the table the 'First Report (Hindi and English versions) of the Committee on Ethics' on Friday. It is on the agenda number 7 for Friday's list of business.
The report was mentioned in the agenda of the list of business of Lok Sabha for the opening day of the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. However, it could not be taken up.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay on Thursday asserted that TMC MP Mahua Moitra should be given a chance to speak.
"Today I spoke with the Speaker, and he said that this committee report along with other reports will be tabled tomorrow. I said that TMC MP Mahua Moitra should be given a chance to speak," TMC MP said.
Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali expressed anticipation that Mahua Moitra's case will be discussed in the Lok Sabha tomorrow. He further emphasized the importance of allowing a thorough and constructive discussion on the matter in Lok Sabha.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Dilip Ghosh said that everything will be done according to the procedure of the Parliament.
The 500-page draft report was adopted by a 6:4 majority last month.
As per the sources, the draft report on Mahua Moitra's cash-for-questions case reveals that she visited the UAE four times from 2019 to 2023 while her login was accessed several times.
"On 47 occasions, her member portal login credentials were accessed from Dubai," sources said citing the draft report of the ethics committee.
The draft report is learnt to have suggested that "serious misdemeanours on the part of Mahua Moitra calls for severe punishment".
"The Committee, therefore, recommends that Mahua Moitra, MP may be expelled from the Membership of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha. In view of the highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct of Mahua Moitra, the Committee recommend for an intense, legal, institutional inquiry by the Government of India in a time-bound manner," the report is learnt to have said.
"Unethical Conduct' and 'Contempt of the House' by Mahua Moitra by way of accepting money - cash and kind, amenities and various other facilities by Mahua Moitra, MP from Darshan Hiranandani, Business Tycoon, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates," it is learnt to have said.
Notably, Nishikant Dubey had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against Moitra, accusing her of asking questions in Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for gifts. However, several leaders of the opposition, including Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has opposed the report.