CBI filed an FIR against former MP Mahua Moitra in connection with the cash-for-query case. The move comes in the wake of directions of Lokpal, which issued directions to CBI after receiving findings of CBI’s preliminary inquiry into allegations made by BJP’s Nishikant Dubey against Moitra.
Moitra has been accused of asking questions in LS in exchange for cash and gifts from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target industrialist Gautam Adani and PM Modi.
Last Oct, Hiranandani had submitted an affidavit to the LS Ethics Committee alleging that Moitra had provided him with her “Parliament login and password” so that he “could post questions on her behalf when required”. Lok Sabha had expelled Moitra in Dec last year for “unethical conduct”.
CBI given six months time
Earlier, a three-member bench of Lokpal asked CBI to register an FIR and investigate within six months all allegations related to quid pro quo against Moitra for allowing Hiranandani to use her Parliament portal login to post at least 58 questions, all typed by him from different locations, including the UAE, US and Bengaluru.
The bench, headed by Justice Abhilasha Kumari and comprising Archana Ramasundaram & Mahender Singh, said it found allegations against the former LS MP “extremely serious” which needed a deeper probe. Lokpal has taken cognisance of the preliminary report submitted by CBI and passed the judgment after hearing Moitra’s lawyer.
Quoting from CBI’s preliminary inquiry report on alleged favours received by Moitra, the Lokpal bench said, “Hiranandani made the payment for the trip of the RPS (respondent public servant) from Delhi to UAE from his credit card. Further, in Nov 2022, the RPS undertook a journey from Delhi to UAE and the payment of ₹170,000 was stated to have been made by Hiranandani from his American Express credit card.”
It rejected Moitra’s lawyer’s submission that Lokpal had no jurisdiction to entertain the complaint in light of Section 14(2) of the Act. The complaint against Moitra was made by Nishikant Dubey who cited letters from Moitra’s former companion advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai as evidence.