Ethics panel report on Mahua ‘leaked’ before being tabled in House: Trinamool

The report of Parliament’s Ethics Committee on the ‘cash for query’ charges against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra will be tabled in Lok Sabha on Monday.

During the all-party meeting ahead of the Parliament session starting on Monday, Trinamool Congress leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien expressed their concern over the leak of the ethics panel’s report in the media before it was tabled in the House.

The report is based on an ethics panel enquiry against Moitra, based on a complaint from BJP MP Nishikant Dubey. He had accused the TMC leader of taking a bribe from businessman Darshan Hiranandani for “asking questions in Parliament.”

However, the TMC leader has denied the allegations, calling them “bogus” and “politically motivated.”

Speaking about the “leak” of the report before it was tabled in Parliament, the TMC said, “Reports of Parliamentary committees should not be made public so brazenly until tabled on the floor of the House. However, the latest report of the Ethics Committee is already exposed to the media.”

The Trinamool Congress has demanded a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the same before any decision is taken. On Saturday, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over Mahua Moitra’s recommended expulsion from the House.

Chowdhury has demanded a review of the rules relating to the functioning of parliamentary committees.

“If the media reports on the recommendations of the Ethics Committee on choosing to recommend expelling Mahua Moitra from Parliament are right, it would, perhaps, be the first such recommendation of the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha. Expulsion from Parliament, you will agree, is an extremely serious punishment and has very wide ramifications,” Chowdhury’s letter read.

After TMC MP Mahua Moitra appeared before the ethics panel in connection with the “cash for query” allegations, the panel by a majority vote adopted the draft report that recommended her expulsion from the Lok Sabha. The report was submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker soon after.

The winter session of Parliament will begin on December 4 and will conclude on December 22.

CASH-FOR-QUERY ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MAHUA MOITRA
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had accused Mahua Moitra of taking bribes for asking questions in the Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the behest of Hiranandani in exchange for gifts.

The BJP MP stated that the charges were based on a Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai’s letter that he received, which had “irrefutable evidence of bribes” exchanged between Moitra and the businessman.