‘Cash for query’: Can’t appear before Nov 5, Mahua tells ethics committee

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra, on Friday, wrote to the chairperson of Lok Sabha Ethics Committee informing of her inability to appear before it for hearing in the alleged ‘cash for query’ case prior to November 5 while also demanding that she be allowed to exercise her right to cross-examine Darshan Hiranandani who had alleged that she was bribed to raise questions against the Adani Group in the Parliament.

The TMC MP took to her X account to share the details of her communication with the chairperson of the committee who, she alleged, announced her summons on live TV before sending her the official letter. Further, in her letter she wrote that being an MP of Bengal where Durga Puja is the biggest festival she is committed to attending numerous pre-scheduled “Bijoya Dashami Sammelans/meetings (both government and political)” in her constituency from October 30 to November 4 and cannot be in Delhi on October 31 to answer the summon. However, she assured that she can appear in person before the committee at any date and time of the committee’s choice after November 5, 2023.

She wrote in her letter that the affidavit submitted to the committee by the business tycoon Darshan Hiranandani “is extremely scant on detail and provides no actual inventory” of what he has allegedly given her. “Given the seriousness of the allegations and in keeping with the principles of natural justice, it is imperative that I am allowed to exercise my right to cross-examine Shri Hiranandani,” she demanded.

Mahua said that it is imperative that the businessman appear before the committee and provide a detailed verified list of the “alleged gifts & favours” he allegedly provided to her. “I wish to place on record that any enquiry without the oral evidence of Shri Hiranandani will be incomplete, unfair and akin to holding a proverbial “kangaroo court” and that he too will need to be called to depose before the Committee before it prepares its final report,” she wrote.

The MP also wrote that as she is a vocal member of the Opposition and responsible for raising my voice against various corporate scams and issues pertaining to national importance, it is vital for the fabric of Indian democracy that she is allowed to defend herself and clear her name in the face of this “motivated and malicious slander campaign” against her.