Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra has been expelled as a Member of the Lok Sabha in the alleged cash-for-query scam. The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee had earlier recommended her expulsion, and in its report, tabled by chairperson Vinod Sonkar, the Committee also recommended an intense legal, institutional inquiry by the government in a time-bound manner.
Addressing the Parliament on Friday, December 8, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said, "This House accepts the conclusions of the Ethics Committee that MP Mahua Moitra's conduct was immoral and indecent as an MP. So, it is not appropriate for her to continue as an MP..."
According to the report of the Ethics Committee, three recommendations were made by the Committee to the Lok Sabha Speaker against Mahua, which the Committee said to have examined elaborately. 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 Ethics Committee report 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