How was affidavit to ethics panel leaked to media, asks Mahua Moitra

The Lok Sabha's ethics committee has received industrialist Darshan Hiranandani's affidavit in which he has made allegations against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra.

On October 26, the committee is scheduled to hear BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, who are expected to provide "oral evidence" in the former's 'cash for query' complaint against Moitra.

In his affidavit, Hiranandani has claimed that the TMC MP shared her Parliament login credentials and saw attacking the Adani Group "as a route to become famous".


"We have received Hiranandani's affidavit, and the committee will study it.... The committee is meeting on October 26 and it will decide its future course of action," Ethics Committee chairperson Vinod Sonkar told ET.

Sonkar said prima facie charges appear serious against Moitra. The panel is open to calling Hiranandani and Moitra if required, he said.

Meanwhile, Moitra said she welcomed answering questions to the CBI and the Ethics Committee but questioned how the affidavit was leaked to the media. She said the BJP's "one-point agenda" is to expel her from the Lok Sabha so that she does not raise any questions on Adani.

In a statement posted on 'X', Moitra raised questions over the credibility of Hiranandani's affidavit, saying that it is written just on a white paper and not on the official letterhead, nor was it notarised.

She dubbed the contents of Hiranandani's letter a "joke" and said it has been "drafted by some half-wit in the PMO who doubles up as a creative writer in the BJP's IT cell".

On charges that her MP login was used by someone else, Moitra responded that all parliamentary work of MPs is done by PAs, assistants, interns, and large teams and requested Union Minister for Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw to release the location and login details of all MPs with CDRs.

Her statement came after Hiranandani claimed in the signed affidavit that the TMC leader targeted Gautam Adani to "malign and embarrass" Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose impeccable reputation gave the opposition no opportunity to attack him.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "there is no place for bribery in the parliamentary process. The matter is before the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, which is doing its work."