On Saturday (28th October), the deputy secretary of the Lok Sabha directed TMC MP Mahua Moitra to appear before the Ethics Committee on 2nd November in connection with the investigation of the allegations of ‘cash-for-question- against her. The Lok Sabha secretariat wrote to her stating that her request for an extension of the date has been accepted.
The Ethics Committee had originally summoned the MP to be present on 31st October. But she had sought to delay it by saying that she was in her constituency.
In the letter addressed to Mahua Moitra, Lok Sabha Secretariat’s deputy secretary Bala Guru G wrote, “The undersigned is directed to refer to your letter dated 27 October, 2023, to state that Hon’ble Chairperson, Committee on Ethics has acceded to your request for extension of date for appearing before the Committee on Ethics, i.e., re-scheduling the sitting of the Committee. It has, accordingly, been decided to hear you in the above matter, in person, on 2 November 2023 at 1100 hours in Committee Room ‘2’, Parliament House Annexe Extension, New Delhi.”
Mahua Moitra given date of Nov 2 to appear before Ethics committee. No extension to be allowed “in view of the seriousness of the matter, having implications on the dignity of Parliament and its members” pic.twitter.com/pZuPgESKhn
— Aman Sharma (@AmanKayamHai_) October 28, 2023
The letter further said, “Hon’ble Chairperson has also directed the undersigned to convey to you that keeping in view the seriousness of the matter, having implications on the dignity of Parliament as well as its Members, any further request for extension of date for appearing before the Committee, i.e., re-scheduling the sitting of the Committee for any reason whatsoever would not be entertained. Necessary confirmation in this regard may kindly be sent to this Secretariat, latest by 31 October 2023.”
On 27th October, Mahua Moitra wrote to the Chairperson of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee seeking an extension up to 4th November to appear in front of the committee. She had said that she couldn’t attend on 31 October as she had pre-scheduled constituency programmes which will end on 4 November. While the committee has agreed to her request, she has been asked to appear earlier than the date she had requested.
Mahua Moitra is accused in cash-for-query incident
Mahua Moitra is accused of accepting expensive luxury gifts and cash from Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for asking questions in parliament against Gautam Adani. The TMC MP also shared the login credentials of her parliamentary NIC account with Darshan Hiranandani who opened it in Dubai to insert the questions. A complaint in this regard was raised to the Lok Sabha speaker by the BJP MP Dr Nishikant Dubey. This complaint is based on advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai’s complaint in CBI against the lady parliamentarian.
