Cash for Query: Ethics Committee adopts report on Mahua Moitra with 6:4 verdict

The Ethics Committee of the Parliament on Thursday adopted the draft report against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra in connection with the charges of alleged 'cash for Parliament questions' matter. The draft will be submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla along with the panel's recommendations.

Speaking to the media after the meeting on Thursday afternoon here, Vinod Sonkar, Chairman of the Ethics Committee said: "The Ethics Committee probing the charges against Mahua Moitra was adopted today. It was supported by six members while four opposed it." 

Sonkar said that a detailed report is being sent to the Lok Sabha Speaker and the details of the fact finding have been mentioned in that. 

He said that the draft report is being sent to the Speaker with the Committee's recommendation to the Speaker.

Sonkar, however, refused to share the details of the recommendations. 

"We have adopted the draft report, and we will submit it with the Speaker tomorrow. He will take the action," he said, adding that the Committee members on the allegations of BJP Nishikant Dubey, affidavit of businessman Darshan Hiranandani and statement of advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai prepared a detailed report. 

He said that it is a 500-page report. Besides Sonkar, the committee includes BJP's Vishnu Datt Sharma, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Aparajita Sarangi, Rajdeep Roy, Sunita Duggal, and Subhash Bhamre, Ve Vaithilingam, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, and Preneet Kaur of the Congress, Balashowry Vallabbhaneni (YSRCP), Hemant Godse (Shiv Sena), Giridhari Yadav (JD-U), PR Natarajan (CPI-M), and Kunwar Danish Ali (BSP). 

According to sources, Sonkar, Saraswati, Sarangi, Godse, Kaur and Roy voted in favour while Ali, Yadav, Vaithilingam and Natrajan opposed the draft report. 

On November 2, Moitra along with the opposition MPs of the Committee stormed out of the meeting accusing the committee's chairperson Sonkar of asking her personal and unethical questions. 

On Tuesday, she took a swipe at the Parliament's Ethics Committee for postponing the meeting to November 9 to clash with Congress MPs nomination date saying BJP calling allies to ensure attendance to adopt via majority. 

She also wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on November 2 alleging that she was subjected to the "proverbial vastraharan" by the chairperson of the Ethics Committee during a hearing on the cash-for-query allegations against her. 

The ethics committee is probing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey's allegations that Moitra accepted cash and favours for asking questions in Lok Sabha at the behest of businessman Hiranandani. 

On October 26, Dubey and advocate Dehadrai gave "oral evidence" to the panel against Moitra. On Wednesday, meanwhile, Dubey said that Lokpal on his complaint has ordered a CBI inquiry against Moitra, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Krishnanagar in West Bengal.