Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who is embroiled in the 'cash for query' row, has hit back at the alleged "affidavit" of business tycoon Darshan Hiranandani, calling it "a joke."
An "affidavit" signed by Hiranandani was leaked on Thursday evening wherein the business tycoon admitted to using Moitra's Parliamentary login to ask questions targeting Adani. Hiranandani added that Moitra had made frequent demands, including "expensive luxury items, providing support on the 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 claimed to have reviewed the affidavit.
However, Moitra expressed doubts over the veracity of the affidavit, stating that the document was written on white paper with no letterhead. She said that Hiranandani had neither been summoned by any investigating agency. "Who then has he given this affidavit to," Moitra said in the statement posted on X.
She said the letter was not notarized nor does it bear an official letterhead. "Why would India's most respected/educated businessman sign a letter like this on a white paper unless a gun was put to his head to do it," she added.
The MP suggested that the contents of the letter were a joke and was drafted by someone in the Prime Minister's Office, adding that "its signs paeans to Modi and Gautam Adani while linking in every opponent of theirs to me and my alleged corruption".
"Cyril Shroff is Gautam Adani's "samdhi" and was on the SEBI's committee in total conflict of interest. Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor are both people the government targets relentlessly. Sucheta Dalal is an investigative journalist who is always exposing the government," she added.
The MP alleged that the "BJP government has been waiting to somehow shut me up on the Adani issue desperately". She also lashed out at Hiranandani's claim that he was fearful of displeasing her, questioning why one of India's biggest tycoons with access to every Minister and PMO be concerned about a first-time opposition MP.
She reiterated that the PMO held a proverbial gun to Hiranandani's head and gave them 20 minutes to sign this letter. They were threatened with the shutdown of all their businesses, Moitra alleged.
"The draft of this letter was sent by the PMO and he was forced to sign it. And it was leaked to the press immediately. This is in return for the government not doing a CBI investigation or not aggressively attacking their businesses," the TMC MP claimed.
"Though tragic, it is totally understandable that Darshan (who is a dear friend) would need to think of what is at stake for him here - namely the continuation of his family businesses built up over decades and the fate of thousands of employees - and buckle under pressure and sign this," she added.
Moitra said this was the modus operandi of the "BJP Government or rather the Gautham Adani government run by the BJP." "My closest have been threatened with CBI or ED raids," she said, of efforts being made to malign her. "The selective leak of a plea bargain being shown as a part of media circus only reveals how scared and desperate the BJP and Modi are of Adani's corruption coming out in the open," the MP added.