The Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics, investigating cash-for-query charges against TMC MP Mahua Moitra, on Thursday adopted by 6:4 majority a report recommending her expulsion from the House for “unethical conduct and contempt of the House”.

Committee chairman Vinod Sonkar told newspersons after a meeting of the committee that the panel will submit its ‘detailed report’ to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday. He said: “The action, whatever it is, will be taken by the Speaker.”

The six members of the Ethics Committee who supported the recommendatory report on the ‘cash-for-query’ charges against the Trinamul Congress MP, included Congress MP Preneet Kaur, while the remaining four members opposed it, the Committee Chairman 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 businessman Darshan Hiranandani should have been summoned by the committee to ensure a free and fair enquiry in all respects,” the sources said.

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 from the Information Technology (IT) Ministry and the 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. The draft report runs into approximately 500 pages.

The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee investigated the cash-for-query allegations against Trinamul Congress MP Mahua Moitra on a complaint by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.

The Committee, in its draft report, is learnt to have concluded that Ms Moitra was involved in ‘unethical conduct’ and shared her ID login and password with unauthorised persons, sources said.

On allegations that the Ethics Committee was already “fixed”, its Chairman Vinod Sonkar said “Today’s agenda was only to adopt the report which was prepared after last three meetings, the complaint and Hiranandani’s affidavit. The agenda was already circulated. A detailed report was sent yesterday. Today, only the process of adoption was supposed to happen.”

Aparajita Sarangi, BJP MP and member of the Ethics Committee said “(Congress MP) Preneet Kaur sided with the truth. I thank her for it. No right thinking person would support Mahua Moitra.”

Moitra on Thursday wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker, alleging a breach in the rules of the House claiming that the draft report of the Lok Sabha Committee on Ethics was accessed by a news channel. She alleged that since the media house was owned by the Adani group this was an issue of corporate fraud and breach of regulations.

In a post on X, she posted her letter to the Speaker and said “Have not received any replies from my previous letter to Lok Sabha speaker but am placing this on record anyway.”

She said, “A very serious breach of rule 275 (2) contained in the rules of procedure and conduct of business in the Lok Sabha where the draft report by the Committee on Ethics on the subject of Unethical Conduct by Mahua Moitra, MP, was accessed by a media channel on November 8, a day before it is to be placed before the Committee.”

“It is even more shocking because this media channel is majority owned by the Adani group, against whom I have raised very serious issues of corporate fraud and breach of financial and securities regulations, in the Lok Sabha,” she said.

“I have been targeted for speaking out against this corporate giant and it is absolutely shocking how a channel owned by this group has access to a confidential Committee report which is the subject of my alleged unethical conduct,” she alleged. She said in her letter that this is totally a breakdown of the rules of the Lok Sabha.

“There is clearly a total breakdown of all due process and rules of the Lok Sabha. Your inaction and lack of response to my previous complaints is also unfortunate,” she claimed.

Meanwhile, expressing solidarity with his party leader Mahua Moitra ahead of the Ethics Committee meeting, Trinamul Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee questioned reports that she would be suspended from Parliament.

“Just note that yesterday, the current chairman of the Ethics Committee recommended expulsion. When you have no evidence then how could you recommend expulsion” Abhishek Banerjee said.