‘Cash-for-query’ row: CBI begins probe into Lokpal complaint on Mahua

The allegations surfaced last month after Dubey wrote two letters – one to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, claiming there were allegations that Moitra took bribes to protect the interest of the Hiranandani Group; and the other to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, urging him to investigate the IP addresses of Moitra’s login credentials for Lok Sabha to check if they had been accessed by someone else.

On November 9, the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha, which inquired into the allegations, adopted a draft report recommending her expulsion for “unethical conduct” and “serious misdemeanours.” Disagreeing with the decision, Opposition members had said in their dissent notes that the panel conducted its probe in “unseemly haste” and with “complete lack of propriety”.

The Ethics Committee had examined Dubey and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai regarding the complaint against Moitra. Hiranandani, on the other hand, had in a sworn affidavit to the panel claimed that Moitra had provided him her Parliament login and password so that he could “post the questions” directly “on her behalf when required”.

In an interview to The Indian Express, Moitra had admitted that she gave her Parliament login and password details to Hiranandani but denied taking any cash from him, as alleged by Dehadrai in his complaint to the CBI.

The committee report said the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology, in its report, had stated that the member portal of Moitra had been “operated 47 times” from the UAE between July 2019 and April 2023.

As regards Moitra “taking cash” from Hiranandani as a “sequel to quid pro quo”, the committee report said it does not have the technical wherewithal and expertise to criminally investigate and unearth the money trial and recommended that it be investigated by the government “in a legal, institutional and time-bound manner.”

Moitra had called the decision a “pre-fixed match by a kangaroo court”.