Trinamool’s Mahua Moitra sues BJP MP, Supreme Court lawyer over bribe charge

Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra has sent a legal notice to BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai over “defamatory” allegations that she took “bribes” to ask questions in the Lok Sabha.

Dubey has cited Dehadrai’s letter to claim that the latter had “irrefutable” evidence that bribes were exchanged between Moitra and businessman Darshan Hiranandani, drawing parallels to the 2005 ‘Cash for Query’ scandal. The BJP leader has also urged Speaker Om Birla and Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to initiate separate investigations into the issue.

The Hiranandani group denied the allegations made by Nishikant Dubey and said it was “not involved in the business of politics”.

In the notice dated October 16, Mahua Moitra, an MP from West Bengal’s Krishnanagar, said that charges that she accepted “any benefit of any kind to perform her duties as a Member of Lok Sabha” were “defamatory, false, baseless, and not supported by even a shred of evidence”.

She accused Nishikant Dubey and Jai Anant Dehadrai of attacking her reputation and goodwill to “extract personal and political vendetta”.

The notice says that Mahua Moitra and Nishikant Dubey, both MPs, have clashed on several occasions in the past over “differences of opinion”. It mentions that Dubey had backed a privilege notice against Moitra and had called for the cancellation of her membership to Parliament.

“In March 2023, our client (Mahua Moitra) questioned the authenticity of the claims of Nishikant Dubey regarding his educational qualifications and corresponding disclosure in his election nomination papers,” the notice said.

Moitra has alleged that Nishikant Dubey was “rattled” by her drawing attention to the issue and had responded by “making and endorsing false and defamatory allegations” against her without verifying the claims.

The notice further says that Mahua Moitra and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai shared a “close friendship” for several years, but had a falling out due to “personal reasons and matters started to become acrimonious”.

Dehadrai “threatened Mahua Moitra with malicious and vulgar messages, and trespassed into her official government residence and stole some personal possessions,” the notice mentioned. It added that a complaint was filed against Dehadrai on two separate occasions – on March 25, 2023 and September 23, 2023.

Mahua Moitra has asked Nishikant Dubey to withdraw the allegations levelled against her in the letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker. She has also asked for a written apology from both Dubey and Dehadrai.