The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on Thursday adopted its report on ‘cash-for-query’ allegations against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra.
Panel chief Vinod Sonkar said that six members of the ethics panel supported the report on the charge against TMC MP Mahua Moitra, while four members opposed it.
The members on the ethics panel who supported the adoption of report are — Aparajita Sarangi, Rajdeep Roy, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Preneet Kaur, Vinod Sonkar, Hemant Godse. Those who opposed the report are Danish Ali, V Vaithilingam, PR Natarajan, Giridhari Yadav.
The committee, headed by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar, had earlier heard Mahua Moitra, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who filed the complaint against her, and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai.
The draft report had recommended the disqualification of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra from Lok Sabha in view of its ongoing probe in the alleged bribe-for-query case, sources told India Today on Wednesday.
Talking about the ethics panel’s action, BJP MP Aprajita Sarangi said, “Nobody would support unethical conduct, everything is in black and white. Now, the Speaker will decide the next course of action.”
Meanwhile, Congress MP V Vaithilingam alleged that the resolution was passed “without any discussion by committee”. “All the decisions are one-sided. A draft resolution must be discussed. There was no discussion,” Vaithilingam said.
WHAT IS CASH-FOR-QUERY ROW?
Last month, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey alleged that “bribes” were exchanged between Mahua Moitra and businessman Darshan Hiranandani to “ask questions in Parliament in exchange for cash and gifts”. Dubey had cited advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai’s letter which mentioned “irrefutable evidence” of the alleged exchange between Moitra and Hiranandani.
Mahua Moitra has refuted all these allegations. She also sent a legal notice to BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and Jai Anant Dehadrai, saying 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”.