In a huge setback to Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra amid the ‘cash for query’ row, business tycoon Darshan Hiranandani admitted that he had used Moitra’s parliamentary login to ask questions targeting Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Moitra is in the middle of a political storm after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey accused her of taking bribes from Hiranandani, the CEO of Hiranandani Group, to ask questions in parliament. Moitra, however, hit back, filing a defamation suit against Dubey in the Delhi High Court.
In a signed affidavit, Hiranandani said he had used Moitra’s login to ask questions after state-owned behemoth Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) booked capacity at Adani’s Dhamra LNG import facility in Odisha and not at his firm's planned facility.
Hiranandani said Moitra had made frequent demands including "expensive luxury items, providing support on renovation of her officially allotted bungalow in Delhi, travel expenses, holidays, etc, apart from providing secretarial and logistical help for her travels within India and to different parts of the world", reported PTI which claims to have reviewed the affidavit.
Hiranandani said he met Moitra at Bengal Global Business Summit in 2017 when she was a MLA.
Hiranandani said she became a "close personal friend" over the years whom he had expected to use for getting business in states ruled by opposition parties.
"Moitra was very ambitious and wanted to make a name for herself at the national level. She was advised by her friends and advisors that the shortest possible route to fame is by personally attacking Modi,” Hiranandani said in his affidavit.
Since Modi enjoyed “an impeccable reputation and was not giving any opportunity to anyone to attack him in policy”, Moitra thought that the “only way to attack Modi is by attacking Gautam Adani and his group as both were contemporaries and they belong to the same state of Gujarat’, the affidavit further said.
"She shared with me her email ID as Member of Parliament, so that I could send her information, and she could raise the questions in the Parliament. I went along with her proposal," he claimed.
After the impressive response she received after raising the first set of questions, Hiranandani said, Moitra shared her Parliament login and password with him so that he could post the questions directly on her behalf when required.
