New Delhi (TIP)- Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra has sought more time to appear before the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha in the ongoing cash-for-query row. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), she posted her request letter to the ethics panel, in which the TMC MP stated that due to the “seriousness of the allegations” levelled against her and the “principles of natural justice”, she should be allowed to “cross-examine” businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
“Chairman, Ethics Comm announced my 31/10 summons on live TV way before official letter emailed to me at 19:20 hrs. All complaints & suo moto affidavits also released to media. I look forward to deposing immediately after my pre-scheduled constituency programmes end on Nov 4,” Moitra wrote on the microblogging site.
In the letter, the TMC MP said that owing to Vijaya Dashami meetings scheduled between October 30 and November 4, she cannot be in Delhi on October 31. Moitra also cited the example of BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, who was summoned by the Lok Sabha’s Privileges Committee on October 10 due to a row with Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Danish Ali, but was later permitted to appear at a later time as per his request.
Moitra further said that Hiranandani should also be present before the ethics panel, and provide “verified lists” of all alleged gifts and favours that the TMC MP is claimed to have received from him. “I wish to place on record that any enquiry without the oral evidence of Hiranandani will be incomplete, unfair and akin to holding a proverbial ‘kangaroo court’…” the TMC MP’s letter said.
Her statement comes after it was reported that Hiranandani, the CEO of real-estate conglomerate Hiranandani Group, is unlikely to be called by the ethics panel in the probe into the cash-for-query row. It was also reported that after Moitra’s deposition, the panel could proceed to recommend its action in the matter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Earlier in the day, India Today reported that the ethics panel will write to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to authenticate Hiranandani’s ‘sworn affidavit’ by way of an apostille that will make it a legal document, so that it can be read as his statement in the ongoing cash-for-query row against Moitra.
In his ‘affidavit’, Hiranandani has claimed that Moitra gave him her Parliament login details to raise questions about the Adani Group, in a bid to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The TMC MP has refuted the claim, saying the businessman was forced to write it by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Source: India Today