Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra on Friday reportedly asked the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee to summon businessman Darshan Hiranandani so that she can "cross-examine" him. Mahua Moitra also claimed that Hiranandani's affidavit provides no actual inventory of gifts he rewarded her with, reports said.
The development comes after Hiranandani, in a signed affidavit, admitted that he paid her bribes and that she targeted Gautam Adani to "malign and embarrass" Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The CEO of the real estate-to-energy eponymous group alleged that the West Bengal MP had provided him her login credentials for the Parliament's official website so that he could "post the questions directly on her behalf”.
Moitra responded to the allegations in the form of a written letter to the chief of the Ethics Committee. It was in this letter addressed to Vinod Kumar Sonkar that Moitra asked for a chance to cross-examine Hiranandani. "Given the seriousness of the allegations and in keeping with the principles of natural justice, it is imperative that I am allowed to exercise my right to cross-examine Shri Hiranandani," the Hindustan Times quoted Moitra as saying in the letter.
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According to the news report, the Lok Sabha MP went ahead to add that any investigation against her without recording Hiranandani's oral evidence “will be incomplete, unfair and akin to holding a proverbial kangaroo court”.
On Thursday, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who had levelled the said allegations against the senior TMC leader, had told the Ethics Committee that it was an "open and shut" case and Moitra should be disqualified.
Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai gave "oral evidence" to the panel against the Trinamool Congress MP on Thursday, after which its chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar said the committee will also seek assistance from the ministries of home affairs and IT in probing the allegations.
