LS ethics committee likely to suggest TMC MP Mahua Moitra's expulsion
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BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and TMC MP Mahua Moitra (file pictures)
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee looking into the "cash-for-query" allegations against TMC MP Mahua Moitra is learnt to have recommended her expulsion from the Lower House of Parliament on the grounds of "unethical conduct" having an impact on national security.
Calling Mahua Moitra's actions "highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal", the committee said it calls for severe punishment.
Although the 500-page report has not been submitted, it is heard to contain a recommendation that a "legal, intensive, institutional and time-bound investigation" be held into the entire matter, according to NDTV which claims to have accessed the operative part of the report.
The committee has concluded that Mahua Moitra had shared her user ID with "unauthorised persons", and took cash and amenities from businessman Darshan Hiranandani and it was a "serious misdemeanour" on her part which calls for "serious punishment".
Also Read:Nishikant Dubey claims CBI probe into Mahua Moitra ordered by Lokpal
Moitra during the hearing, and even earlier in public domain, admitted to sharing the login credentials, which she said most MP's would be doing and there was no express bar against it. But she denied allegations having accepted gifts or rewards for asking questions about the Adani group in Lok Sabha. She also took exception to several questions asked during the ethics panel hearing, which she charged violated her privacy and discredited womanhood especially the ones on her travels, hotel stay and telephone calls. She eventually stormed out of the hearing when such questions continued to her disapproval. The Opposition members of the panel also walked out of the hearing following her.
The committee headed by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar is meeting later on Thursday to adopt its draft report in what is likely to be hotly contested by opposition members of the panel.
It has deplored the conduct of Moitra, who has been accused of sharing her parliamentary log-in credentials with a businessman, as "highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal", and has also called for a time-bound legal and institutional inquiry by the government.
The government should investigate the alleged money trail between her and businessman Darshan Hiranandani as part of quid-pro-quo, it has said.
The committee has also said that BSP MP Danish Ali, one of its most vocal opposition members, should be admonished for "twisting" the intent of the questions asked by Sonkar of Moitra during its last hearing on November 2.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had approached Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against Moitra, accusing her of asking questions in the Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group at the behest of businessman Hiranandani in exchange for bribes and gifts.
Also Read:Shaken to know BJP planning criminal cases against me: Mahua Moitra
The report will be submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker during the winter session of parliament and action will be taken after a discussion. The committee is expected to adopt the report at its meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. on Thursday.
The 15-member committee has seven members from the BJP, three from the Congress, and one each from the BSP, the Shiv Sena, the YSRCP, the CPI(M) and the JD(U).
In a related but separate development, Dubey on Wednesday said the Lokpal has ordered a CBI probe against Moitra on his complaint of alleged corruption by her.
Hitting back, Moitra said the CBI needs to first file an FIR in the Rs 13,000-crore Adani coal "scam".
"National security issue is how dodgy foreign portfolio investor (FPI) owned (inc Chinese & UAE ) Adani firms buying Indian ports & airports ... Then CBI welcome to come, count my shoes," she posted on X.
With inputs from PTI
