BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai will appear before the Lok Sabha's Ethics Committee on Thursday, as it holds its first meeting on the "cash for query" allegation against TMC MP Mahua Moitra.
"Oral Evidence of Shri Jai Anant Dehadrai, Advocate in respect of complaint dated 15 October, 2023 given by Dr. Nishikant Dubey, MP against Smt. Mahua Moitra, MP for alleged direct involvement in cash for query in Parliament. Oral evidence of Dr. Nishikant Dubey, MP, in respect of complaint dated 15 October, 2023 given by him against Smt. Mahua Moitra, MP for alleged direct involvement in cash for query in Parliament," the panel's schedule for Thursday said.
Dubey filed a complaint with Speaker Om Birla against Moitra, citing the documents provided to him by advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, former partner of Moitra.
In his letter to the Speaker, he alleged Mahua Moitra got expensive gifts or money in exchange for asking questions about entrepreneur Gautam Adani in Parliament. Dubey said 50 of 61 questions she asked in Lok Sabha till recently were focused on the Adani Group.
Dubey added that Moitra was in India when her parliamentary ID was used in Dubai and claimed that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) disclosed the information to probe agencies. The BJP leader said that "an MP pawned the country's security for some money."
Speaker Birla forwarded the complaint to the Ethics Committee headed by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar. The other members are Vishnu Datt Sharma, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Aparajita Sarangi, Rajdeep Roy, Sunita Duggal, and Subhash Bhamre of the BJP; V Vaithilingam, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Balashowry Vallabbhaneni, and Preneet Kaur of the Congress; Hemant Godse of the Shiv Sena; Giridhari Yadav of the JD(U); P R Natarajan of the CPI(M); and Danish Ali of the BSP.
Mahua denied all allegations as the lies of "jilted ex" (Dehadrai) and said she was being targetted by the Adani group as she was relentless in raising questions on the conglomerate's practices.
However, Darsh Hiranandani, the CEO of the real estate-to-energy eponymous group, came out with a signed affidavit wherein he said he allegedly paid her to raise questions in Parliament. He admitted that the TMC leader targeted Gautam Adani to "malign and embarrass" Modi whose impeccable reputation gave the opposition no opportunity to attack him.