Trinamul Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Friday expressed her inability to appear before the ethics committee of the Lok Sabha on October 31, saying she would be attending numerous pre-scheduled Vijaya Dashami Sammelans/meetings in her constituency between October 30 and November 4.
The committee is probing the cash-for-query allegation levelled against the Krishnanagar legislator by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.
“…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,” Moitra wrote in a letter addressed to Vinod Kumar Sonkar, chairperson of the panel which had asked her to appear before it on October 31.
Moitra told the committee that she would present herself on “any date and time of the committee’s choice after November 5”.
In her letter, Moitra noted that BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri had told the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha that he would not be able to appear before it on the designated date as he had prior commitments in Rajasthan. Bidhuri was accused of using communal slurs against BSP’s Danish Ali in the Parliament.
Sonkar acknowledged the receipt of Moitra’s letter and said: “The committee will take a decision on her letter in accordance with the rules.”
The Trinamul MP on Friday continued her tirade on social media, claiming that the summons notice, complaints and affidavits had been released to the media even before the official letter was emailed to her.
“Chairman, Ethics Comm announced my 31/10 summons on live TV way before official letter emailed to me at 19:20 hrs. All complaints & suo moto affidavits also released to media,” she posted on her X handle.
In her letter to the ethics committee, Moitra also referred to businessman Darshan Hiranandani’s allegation in an affidavit that she had accepted expensive gifts and got her house renovated in return for asking questions in Parliament and demanded that he, too, be summoned by the panel.
“An affidavit notarised at the Indian High Commission in Dubai on 20/10/2023 was submitted on a suo moto basis to the Committee and released publicly to the media by Shri Darshan Hiranandani. Shri Hiranandani in a public interview expressed his willingness to appear before the committee. His affidavit available in the public domain, is extremely scant on detail and provides no actual inventory of what he has allegedly given me,” Moitra wrote.
“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,” she added.
“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 called to depose for the Committee before it prepares its final report,” read the letter.
Dubey, who had appeared before the panel on Thursday, took to X to take a dig at Moitra’s demand to cross-examine the businessman.
“Dubai Didi has asked for cross-examination of some people. Under the rules of the Lok Sabha, especially page 246 of the Kaul-Shakdher book, the witness is protected from court and hue and cry,” Dubey said in a post on X.
The BJP MP poked fun at Moitra for a typographical error in her letter — wherein Dubey was wrongly spelt as Dubai — to Sonkar. It showed her “addiction with Dubai” and her “mental condition”, said Dubey, who had earlier alleged that Moitra’s Parliament login id had been accessed from Dubai when she was in India.
Moitra, in her letter, also asked why the ethics committee had heard the complainants before giving her a chance to appear.
“The Committee – against the order of natural justice, if I may humbly add – summoned and heard the complainants Shri Dubai & Shri Dehadrai on 26/10/2023 prior to allowing me, the alleged accused, a chance to be heard,” Moitra wrote.
