Mahua Moitra: Mahua Moitra seeks permission to cross-examine alleged ‘bribe giver’ | India News

NEW DELHI: A day before Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra is scheduled to appear before the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee probing the cash-for-query allegations against her, she shared a copy of the letter she wrote to the panel chairman, on social media, on Wednesday.
In the letter, Moitra said she will appear before the panel on November 2 and will “demolish” the complaint of cash-for-query against her.

Moitra, who has been at the centre of a political storm after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey complained to the Lok Sabha Speaker alleging that she took bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target the Adani Group while raising questions in the House, also stated in the letter that parliamentary committees lack criminal jurisdiction and emphasised the importance of involving law enforcement agencies in such cases.
Highlighting that inquiry without allowing her the opportunity to cross-examine would be “incomplete and unfair,” Moitra has sought to cross-examine the alleged “bribe-giver,” Hiranandani, who submitted an affidavit to the committee “without offering substantial evidence.”
She has also sought to cross-examine the complainant, Jai Anant Dehadral, who she claimed provided no documentary evidence to support the charges.
“In light of the seriousness of the allegations, it is imperative that the alleged ‘bribe-giver’ Darshan Hiranandani, who has given a ‘suo-moto’ affidavit to the Committee with scant details and no documentary evidence whatsoever, be called to depose before the Committee and provide the said evidence in the form of a documented itemised inventory with amounts, date etc,” she said.
“I wish to place on record that in keeping with the principles of natural justice I wish to exercise my right to cross-examine Hiranandani,” she wrote, in the two-page letter.
Raising concerns about what she claimed were “double standards” of the Ethics Committee in issuing a summons, the Krishnanagar MP said, the panel has adopted a very different approach in the case of BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri who has a “very serious complaint of hate speech” pending against him with the Privileges and Ethics branch. Bidhuri was summoned on October 10 to provide oral evidence, but he expressed his inability to depose as he was away campaigning in Rajasthan, she pointed out.
Sharing the letter dated October 31 on X, Moitra said, “Since the Ethics Committee deemed it fit to release my summons to the media I think it is important I too release my letter to the Committee before my “hearing” tomorrow.”