The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee has recommended the expulsion of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra. The Committee, in its report tabled by chairperson Vinod Sonkar, on Friday, December 8 also recommended an intense legal, institutional inquiry by the government in a time-bound manner.
“The Committee has made three recommendations to the Lok Sabha Speaker against Mahua, which it has examined elaborately,” the report said. The Committee called Mahua's conduct “unethical’', stating that sharing her login credentials of the Lok Sabha portal to unauthorised persons was a “contempt of the House” that had an impact on “National Security”.
“The serious misdemeanours on the part of Mahua Moitra call for severe punishment. The Committee, therefore, recommended that Mahua Moitra, MP, be expelled from the Membership of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha. In view of the highly objectionable, unethical, heinous, and criminal conduct of Mahua Moitra, the Committee recommends for an intense, legal, institutional inquiry by the Government of India in a time-bound manner,” the report further said.
The Committee’s probe into Mahua began after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey asked for an inquiry into her conduct and demanded her suspension, claiming that he possessed evidence of bribes given to the TMC MP by business tycoon Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for asking questions in the Parliament. Nishikant had also claimed that Mahua had shared her Parliamentary account login credentials with the businessman in exchange for gifts.
Also read: Ethics panel recommends Mahua Moitra’s expulsion from Lok Sabha
It may be recalled that at the time of the probe, Mahua had demanded a meeting with the Ethics Committee to present her defence. However, during the meeting on November 2, the TMC leader stormed out accusing the Ethics Committee chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar of asking filthy, undignified questions, and “talking rubbish.”
Further, the so-called cash-for-query allegations have stemmed from a personal dispute between Mahua and her former partner and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai. In October this year, when BJP MP Nishikant demanded the probe into Mahua, he had claimed that he had received a letter from Jai alleging that the TMC leader had taken bribes from Darshan in exchange for asking questions in Parliament. Mahua has been a strident critic of the Adani Group and its ties to the ruling BJP.
Read: Explained: The Mahua Moitra, Jai Dehadrai, Hiranandani, and Adani saga
Nishikant had further claimed that Dehadrai had done “elaborate and painstaking research” and alleged that Mahua asked “approximately 50 questions in Parliament, out of total 61…. which shockingly seek information with the intent of protecting or perpetuating business interests of Shri Darshan Hiranandani and his company,” adding that the questions focused on the Adani Group.
The rift between Mahua and her former partner, whom she has previously referred to as a “jilted ex”, began simply over a disagreement regarding the custody of their dog, a Rottweiler. The disqualified MP had filed police complaints twice saying that Jai had abducted the Rottweiler.