Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nishikant Dubey on Sunday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking immediate suspension of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra for allegedly taking bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament.
The Hiranandani Group refuted the allegations, saying they have no merit, Moneycontrol reported.
“We have always been in the business of business and not in the business of politics,” a spokesperson of the real estate group said.
The BJP MP accused Moitra of breach of parliamentary privilege, contempt of the House and criminal conspiracy.
Dubey cited a letter from an advocate named Jai Anand Dehadrai, who he claimed had shared with him “irrefutable evidence” about Moitra asking questions in Parliament in exchange for cash and gifts.
Approximately 50 of the 61 questions asked by the Opposition leader were meant to “seek information with the intent of protecting or perpetuating business interests” of Hiranandani, Dubey alleged in his letter.
“The questions were also often focused on the Adani Group, another business conglomerate, Hiranandani Group was bidding for business against,” the BJP MP wrote.
Moitra, the MP added, has also “vehemently targeted” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah while referring to businessman Gautam Adani’s conglomerate.
Dubey claimed she did so “possibly with the intention of seeking cover against her clandestine operation”. The Opposition parties took their cue from her, using every opportunity to attack the government and make “desperate attempts” to link it to “select business groups”, the letter read.
The Trinamool Congress leader along with the Opposition has accused the Modi government of giving undue favours to the Adani Group. The Gujarat-based conglomerate has seen a meteoric rise in its fortunes since Modi became prime minister in 2014.
Dubey in his letter to Birla alleged that Moitra’s conduct marks the “reemergence of cash for query”, a reference to the 2005 media expose of many MPs asking questions in Parliament in exchange for bribes.
He asked Birla to constitute an inquiry committee to investigate the charges against her.
Moitra responded saying that the Central Bureau of Investigation is welcome to look into the matter, “right after they finish investigating Adani’s offshore money trail, over-invoicing, benami accounts”.
She asked the Lok Sabha Speaker to finish the investigation against Dubey for allegedly providing false information about his educational qualifications in his affidavits and then form a committee to look into the charges against her.
“Am using all my ill gotten cash and gifts to buy a college/university in which degree Dubey can finally buy a real degree,” she wrote on X.
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