Cash for Query: Ethics Committee submits report recommending Mahua Moitra’s expulsion to LS Speaker Om Birla

New Delhi [India]: Lok Sabha Ethics Committee has submitted its draft report recommending the expulsion of TMC MP Mahua Moitra in connection with the ‘Cash for Query’ case to Speaker Om Birla, sources said on Friday.

This comes a day after the Ethics panel investigating the matter adopted its 500-page report recommending Moitra’s expulsion from the 17th Lok Sabha in view of her “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct”. The report was adopted with a 6:4 majority.

According to panel chairman Vinod Sonkar, the members supporting the report included Preneet Kaur, the wife of former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who is now with the BJP.

As per the sources, the draft report on Mahua Moitra’s cash-for-questions case reveals that she visited the UAE four times from 2019 to 2023 while her login was accessed several times.

“On 47 occasions, her member portal login credentials were accessed from Dubai,” according to the draft report of the ethics committee.

The Ethics Committee had sought details reports from Information Technology (IT) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) regarding IP address and location. The committee had also sought MHA’s input on the dangers of sharing login credentials, emphasizing the legal consequences under Section IT ACT 2000.

The draft report is learnt to have suggested that “serious misdemeanours on the part of Mahua Moitra calls for severe punishment”.

“The Committee, therefore, recommends that Mahua Moitra, MP may be expelled from the Membership of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha. In view of the highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct of Mahua Moitra, the Committee recommend for an intense, legal, institutional inquiry by the Government of India in a time-bound manner,” the report is learnt to have said.

“‘Unethical Conduct’ and ‘Contempt of the House’ by Mahua Moitra by way of accepting money – cash and kind, amenities and various other facilities by Mahua Moitra, MP from Darshan Hiranandani, Business Tycoon, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates,” it is learnt to have said.