THE Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on Thursday recommended the expulsion ofTMC MP Mahua Moitra from the House in the “cash-forquery” matter, sources said. The committee, headed by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar, met here and adopted its report recommending her expulsion. This is perhaps the first time the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha has recommended the expulsion of an MP, a retired Lok Sabha Secretariat official said. After the meeting, Sonkar told reporters that six members of the panel supported adoption of the report and four opposed it. The report will now be sent to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for further action.

 

The committee has earlier heard Moitra, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who filed the complaint against her, and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai. Based on information shared by Dehadrai, the BJP MP accused Moitra of asking questions in the Lok Sabha to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for gifts. “The recommendation report by the Parliament Ethics Committee has been adopted by the Committee with a 6:4 majority. Congress MP Preneet Kaur is one of the six MPs who supported the draft. A detailed report is being submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker tomorrow...The action, whatever it is, will be taken by the Speaker,” Sonkar said. The Committee, in its draft report, spaning approximately 500 pages, accused Moitra of being involved in ‘unethical conduct’ and sharing her ID login and password with unauthorised persons, sources said. “One common ground for all the Opposition MPs to submit a dissent note is that the enquiry is not fair.

 

They have said that Darshan Hiranandani should have been summoned by the committee to ensure a free and fair enquiry in all respects,” the sources said. 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, emphasising 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.