Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, facing the heat in the cash-for-query case may encounter further trouble as the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, looking into the allegations in the case has likely recommended the MP's expulsion from Lower House of the Parliament, according to a PTI report. The committee headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar is scheduled to meet later on Thursday to adopt its draft report in what is likely to be hotly contested by opposition members of the panel.
The committee has deplored Moitra's conduct, who has been accused of sharing her parliamentary log-in credentials with a businessman as "highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal". It has also called for a time-bound legal and institutional inquiry by the government.
The government should look into the alleged money trail between Moitra and the businessman, Darshan Hiranandani as part of quid-pro-quo, it said.
The committee has also said that BSP MP Danish Ali, one of its most vocal opposition members, should be admonished for "twisting" the intent of the questions asked by Sonkar of Moitra during its last hearing on November 2.
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The probe is being done in the case on the basis of complaint by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey against Moitra to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Dubey accused the TMC MP of asking questions in the Lower House of the Parliament to target the Adani Group at the behest of businessman Hiranandani in exchange for bribes and gifts.
The 15-member committee includes seven members from the BJP, three from the Congress, and one each from the BSP, the Shiv Sena, the YSRCP, the CPI(M) and the JD(U).
All five members from the opposition attending the November 2 meeting walked out of the proceedings alleging that Sonkar asked personal and indecent questions to the TMC MP regarding her travels, hotel stay and telephone calls.