‘Cash-for-query’: LS Ethics panel recommends Mahua Moitra’s expulsion from House

The Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha on Thursday Committee adopted its report on ‘cash-for-query’ allegations against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and recommended her expulsion from the House, news agency PTI reported quoting sources. The cash-for-query allegations involving Moitra surfaced last month after BJP MP Nishikant 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 log-in credentials for Lok Sabha to check if they had been accessed by someone else. “The Ethics Committee had prepared a report regarding the allegations on Mahua Moitra. Today’s single agenda was to adopt that report. The report has been adopted, in which six members supported it and four voted against it," said BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar.

VIDEO | "The Ethics Committee had prepared a report regarding the allegations on Mahua Moitra. Today's single agenda was to adopt that report. The report has been adopted, in which six members supported it and four voted against it," says BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar as Lok Sabha… pic.twitter.com/oGuYzf4wqL

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 9, 2023

Meanwhile, BSP MP Danish Ali on Thursday accused Ethics Committee chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar and BJP members of leaking the proceedings of the panel in violation of rules in the cash-for-query allegation against TMC’s Mahua Moitra. Talking to reporters while on way to attend the meeting of the committee which is taking place to adopt a report against Moitra in the cash-for-query allegation, Ali said in violation of the rules, Sonkar and BJP members of panel leaked details of the proceedings. Sources told PTI the committee is also expected to underline its unhappiness at the conduct of some opposition members during its proceedings and make a mention of it in its recommendations to the House. They said the committee may make a recommendation against Ali, who was loudest in his attack on Sonkar’s “indecent and personal” questions to Moitra. Sonkar had described the conduct of members like Ali and JD (U)’s Giridhari Yadav as unethical. The 15-member committee has seven members from the BJP, three from the Congress, and one each from BSP, Shiv Sena, YSRCP, CPI(M) and JDU.