The Delhi High Court on Monday rejected an interim relief application filed by Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra seeking to restrain Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai from posting allegedly defamatory content against her, Live Law reported.
Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December after Dubey and Dehadrai, reportedly her estranged partner, accused her of taking bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament.
Moitra had filed a defamation suit against Dubey and Dehadrai for their allegations against her. The Delhi High Court had reserved its verdict in the matter on December 20.
Responding to the High Court having dismissed Moitra’s plea, Dehadrai said that the application was a “malafide attempt by certain individuals who wanted to silence us from speaking the truth about their corrupt, crooked activities”. The advocate said that he is committed to the fight.
On November 9, the report adopted by the Lok Sabha ethics panel recommending Moitra’s expulsion from Parliament had called her actions “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal”.
The panel, in its 104-page report, had found Moitra guilty of “unethical conduct” and contempt of the Lok Sabha for sharing her login user ID and password of the Parliament website with “unauthorised persons”, thereby disturbing national security.
The panel stated that Moitra said she had not logged in from Dubai between January 1, 2019, and September 30, 2023, during her visits to allegedly meet Hiranandani. But, the report said, this showed that someone else had been logging in on her behalf from Dubai, having 47 logins from the same IP address.
The committee concluded that of the 61 questions posed by Moitra on the portal, 50 were with the intent of “protecting or perpetuating business interests” of Hiranandani.
The committee also recommended an “intense, legal, institutional inquiry” by the Union government against Moitra. The Central Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the allegations.
Moitra, after her expulsion, alleged that the ethics panel found her guilty of breaching a code that did not exist. The Trinamool Congress leader said that the committee punished her for a practice that is routine, accepted and encouraged in the House.
Moitra also said that the findings of the panel were based on the written testimonies of two private citizens, Dehadrai and Hiranandani, whose versions she alleged contradict each other. Moitra also said that she was not allowed to cross-examine both the men to verify their claims.
She added, “Ironically, the Ethics Committee [of the Lok Sabha], which was set up to serve as a moral compass for members; instead it has been abused egregiously today to do exactly what it was never meant to do, which is to bulldoze the Opposition and become another weapon.”
The Trinamool Congress leader had on December 11 also moved the Supreme Court against her expulsion from the Lok Sabha.
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