A day before Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra appears before
the Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee, probing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s “cash-for-query”
allegations against her, sources privy to the matter alleged that nearly 47
log-ins to her parliamentary account were made from Dubai.
He has accused Moitra of asking questions, which were
keyed in through her parliamentary account, at the behest of businessman
Darshan Hiranandani in return for bribes and favours from the Dubai-based scion
of a well-known business family.
Moitra has admitted that she shared her log-in
credentials with Hiranandani, whom she has described as a close friend for a
long time, but has ruled out any pecuniary motivation and asserted that the
questions were always hers.
Nishikant Dubey has accused her of compromising
national interest by sharing her parliamentary portal log-in and password with
an outsider, and has cited the agreement MPs sign to keep the details secret to
demand action against her.
The third-term BJP MP from Godda in Jharkhand today
referred to “media reports” that her log-in was opened 47 times from Hiranandani’s
place in Dubai and as many questions were asked in Parliament.
“If this news is true, then all the MPs of the country
should stand against Mahua ji’s corruption. Hiranandani asked questions in Lok
Sabha for Hiranandani. Are we MPs for promoting selfish interests of
capitalists,” Dubey said on X.
The committee has taken assistance from the Union
ministries of home and information technology to probe the matter and is
believed to have received details from them to its queries.
What has added to Mahua Moitra’s woes is an affidavit
by the businessman in which he admitted to giving bribes to her so that she
could ask questions to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She has claimed that Hiranandani was coerced by the
government to file the affidavit and has sought to question him during her
appearance at the panel, an unlikely eventuality as it is not a standard
practice in the working of such parliamentary panels.
The Trinamool MP has claimed that the Adani Group is
behind the alleged charges due to her strident criticism of the business
conglomerate.
PTI
