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Cash for query row: Moitra seeks more time to appear before House panel
The Parliament panel, which heard BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai on Thursday, had asked Moitra to depose on October 31
New Delhi
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra on Friday wrote to Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee probing the “cash-for-query” allegation, saying that she won’t be able to appear before the panel before November 5 due to prior engagements. In her letter to the panel’s chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar, Moitra also said that she be allowed to “cross-examine” businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
The Parliament panel, which heard Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai on Thursday, had asked Moitra to depose on October 31.
In her letter to Sonkar, Moitra said: “I am already committed to attending numerous pre-scheduled Vijaya Dashami Sammelans/meetings (both government and political) in my constituency from 30th October to 4th November 2023 and cannot be in Delhi on 31st October 2023. Therefore, I request to be given time to appear in person before the committee at any date and time of the committee’s choice after 5th November 2023.”
Moitra said that BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, who was summoned by the Parliament’s privileges committee, on October 10, earlier requested that he be allowed to appear before the panel on a different date due to prior engagements and “was accorded a similar courtesy by this same branch”.
“I eagerly look forward to physically attending and presenting my defence against the slanderous charges levelled against me at the next date provided by you,” she said.
Usually, house panels give at least one extension to deponents to appear before them.
The proceedings, however, do not typically have any provision for those deposing before it to cross-examine others.
In her letter, the TMC lawmaker asked the panel chairman she be “allowed to exercise my right to cross-examine” Hiranandani, the businessman who said in a signed affidavit that he gifted Moitra “expensive luxury items” , underwriting the “renovation of her official” bungalow; and posting “questions directly on her behalf” using the Parliament login and password that she provided him.
In the letter, Moitra said that Hiranandani should appear before the panel and provide a “detailed verified list of the alleged gifts & favours he allegedly provided to me”.
“I wish to place on record that any enquiry without the oral evidence of Shri Hiranandani will be incomplete, unfair and akin to holding a proverbial “kangaroo court” and that he too will need to be called to depose before the Committee before it prepares its final report,” she said in the letter.
Moitra’s insistence on Hiranandani’s deposition assumes significance as the panel has no immediate plans to summon the Dubai-based business, officials aware of the matter said.
They added that the panel instead planned to ask the ministry of external affairs to authenticate his affidavit, which he gave to the Indian consulate general in Dubai.
Meanwhile, Dubey continued to target Moitra, accusing her of selling India’s security.
“When any MP gets the Parliament mail ID or member portal, we make an agreement with NIC, the very first point of which is that this mail ID and password will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone. I signed this agreement after thinking carefully. Did the degree holder study or not or did she sell the country’s security for a few bucks?” he said.
The panel proposes to write to the ministries of home affairs, IT and external affairs for assistance in the case.
