Lok Sabha expels Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra from House for 'unethical conduct'

The lower house of Parliament on Friday passed a resolution to expel Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra from Lok Sabha for 'unethical conduct'. Opposition members walked out of the house after the decision was taken.

This House accepts the conclusions of the Committee that MP Mahua Moitra's conduct was "immoral and indecent" as an MP, said Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla. "So, it is not appropriate for her to continue as an MP."

"I am 49 years old, I will fight you for the next 30 years inside Parliament, outside Parliament," said Moitra after being expelled from the house. "The Ethics Committee has no power to expel. This is the beginning of your(BJP) end," she remarked.


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In essence I have been found guilty of breaching code of ethics that does not exist, Moitra said further.

"If this Modi government thought that by shutting me up they could do away with the Adani issue, let me tell you this that this kangaroo court has only shown to all of India that the haste and the abuse of due process you have used demonstrates how important Adani is to you. And to what length you will go to harass a single woman MP into shutting her into submission," she said.

The report in the "cash-for-query" case was tabled in the lower house of Parliament earlier today amid uproar from the Opposition MPs who questioned the procedure followed by the panel and demanded a discussion on the report.

Ethics Committee chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar laid on the table of the House the panel's first report.

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Businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who allegedly paid Moitra to raise questions in Parliament about the Adani Group, had claimed in a signed affidavit that the TMC MP from Krishnanagar targeted industrialist Gautam Adani to "malign and embarrass" Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The committee, at a meeting on November 9, adopted its report recommending Moitra's expulsion from the Lok Sabha over the "cash-for-query" allegation.

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Six members of the panel voted in favour of the report, including Congress MP Preneet Kaur who had earlier been suspended from the party. Four members of the panel belonging to opposition parties submitted dissent notes.

The opposition members termed the report a "fixed match" and said the complaint filed by BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey, which the panel reviewed, was not supported by a "shred of evidence".