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Synopsis

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey recently filed a complaint with the Lok Sabha Speaker, alleging that TMC MP Mahua Moitra was involved in accepting bribes from realtor Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for posing questions in Parliament targeting the Adani Group

In his letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, Dubey claimed that out of the 61 questions Moitra had posed in the Lok Sabha up to that point, 50 were centred on the Adani Group. Moitra has frequently accused this business conglomerate of malpractices, especially after it was the subject of a critical report by the short-seller Hindenburg Research.

Upon receiving the complaint, the Lok Sabha Speaker referred it to the Parliament's Ethics Committee.

Reportedly, Darshan Hiranandani has turned into an approver and filed an affidavit before the Ethics Committee, alleging that Moitra attempted to launch personal attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by targeting businessman Gautam Adani.

Darshan alleged that Moitra shared her email ID and password as a Member of Parliament for Darshan to send information to her, facilitating the submission of queries in Parliament against Adani.

Additionally, Darshan claimed that Moitra received assistance from individuals like Journalist Sucheta Dalal, Chairman of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. Shardul Shroff, and his wife Pallavi Shroff, who were in contact with her and provided her with various unverified pieces of information related to Gautam Adani and his companies.

Darshan further alleged that Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, were aiding Moitra in targeting companies associated with the Adani Group. Furthermore, he alleged that Moitra had received unverified information from journalists at the Financial Times, New York Times, BBC, and former employees of the Adani Group.

He also claimed that in return, Moitra made frequent demands from him, including receiving expensive luxury items, supporting the renovation of her officially allotted bungalow in Delhi, covering travel expenses, providing vacations, and more. Additionally, she requested secretarial and logistical assistance for her travels within India and to various parts of the world.

Meanwhile, Moitra responded to the affidavit through a tweet on social media, stating that it's a white paper and not on official letterhead, and it's not even notarized. She also questioned why Darshan hasn't held a press conference or posted the affidavit himself.

Moitra alleged that the affidavit was written by someone from the PMO Office and the BJP IT cell. She further added that Darshan was forced to sign the affidavit.

“Darshan and his father's heads and gave them 20 minutes to sign this letter sent to them. They were threatened with a total shut down of all their businesses. His father is in real estate which depends on government licenses. And he is in energy, data centres and semiconductor chip manufacturing which too depends on government licenses. He has over 30,000 crore investments in UP alone. They were told they will be finished, the CBI would raid them and all government business would stop and all PSU bank financing would be stopped immediately,” Moitra said.

Moitra further stated that individuals closely related to her had been threatened by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

“This is the usual modus operandi of this BJP government or rather Gautam Adani's government run by the BJP. Every effort is being made to malign me and isolate and scare those near and dear to me. My closest have been threatened with ED and CBI raids in the next few days. This selective leak of a plea bargain being shown as part of a media circus only reveals how scared and desperate the BJP and Modi are of Adani's corruption coming out in the open. This is part of the establishment's witch hunt into every political leader who dares question Adani. This is the price to pay for standing up to the BJP and Adani. But they cannot scare me,” Moitra said.

Meanwhile, In TMC MP Mahua Moitra's defamation suit before the Delhi High Court seeking directions to restrain BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, and several social media platforms and media houses from posting, circulating, or publishing any fake and defamatory content against her, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan on Friday withdrew to appear for Moitra after Dehadrai informed the court that he was contacted by him to withdraw the complaint against the TMC MP.

In her plea, Moitra has sought an order directing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and Jai Anant Dehadrai to publish a retraction and an apology to the plaintiff in three English newspapers, three Hindi newspapers, and three Bengali newspapers for the false and defamatory statements and allegations” made by them against her.