New Delhi: The Lower House is set to receive the Ethics Committee’s report on Friday, regarding Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra, concerning an alleged involvement in a “cash-for-query” case.
The Lok Sabha’s agenda includes the presentation of the ‘First Report on Ethics’ by the Ethics Panel chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar, alongside member Aparajita Sarangi. The report will be tabled and is listed as agenda number 7 for the day in both Hindi and English versions.
The report was mentioned in the agenda of the list of business of Lok Sabha for the opening day of the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament. However, it could not be taken up.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay on Thursday asserted that TMC MP Mahua Moitra should be given a chance to speak.
“Today I spoke with the Speaker, and he said that this committee report along with other reports will be tabled tomorrow. I said that TMC MP Mahua Moitra should be given a chance to speak,” TMC MP said.
The 500-page draft report was adopted by a 6:4 majority last month. As per an ANI report citing sources, the draft report on Mahua Moitra’s cash-for-questions case reveals that she visited the UAE four times from 2019 to 2023 while her login was accessed several times.
The draft report is learnt to have suggested that “serious misdemeanours on the part of Mahua Moitra calls for severe punishment”.
“The Committee, therefore, recommends that Mahua Moitra, MP may 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 recommend for an intense, legal, institutional inquiry by the Government of India in a time-bound manner,” the report is learnt to have said.
“Unethical Conduct’ and ‘Contempt of the House’ by Mahua Moitra by way of accepting money – cash and kind, amenities and various other facilities by Mahua Moitra, MP from Darshan Hiranandani, Business Tycoon, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates,” it is learnt to have said.
Notably, Nishikant Dubey had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against Moitra, accusing her of asking questions in Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for gifts. However, several leaders of the opposition, including Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Danish Ali and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has opposed the report.