Cash-For Query: Mahua Wants To Cross-Examine Lawyer, Businessman. Writes To Ethics Panel Before Hearing
In a letter to the chairperson of the Ethics panel, Mahua Moitra, embroiled in the cash-for-query case, has said she wanted to examine lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai and businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
A day before her hearing in the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, examining the cash-for-query allegations against her, TMC MP Mahua Moitra wrote a letter to the panel stating that she wished to cross-examine lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai who accused her of taking bribes to ask questions in Parliament and businessman Darshan Hiranandani who alleged that she shared her login details with him to ask questions.
Sharing her letter on X, she said, "Since Ethics Committee deemed it fit to release my summons to the media I think it is important I too release my letter to the Committee before my “hearing” tomorrow."
Since Ethics Committee deemed it fit to release my summons to the media I think it is important I too release my letter to the Committee before my “hearing” tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/A8MwFRsImk
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) November 1, 2023
Demanding to cross examine the lawyer, she wrote in her letter, "In keeping with the principles of natural justice I wish to exercise my right to cross-examine Dehadrai."
She added, "In light of the seriousness of the allegations, it is imperative that the alleged 'bribe-giver' Darshan Hiranandani, who has given a 'Suo-Motu' affidavit to the Committee with scant details and no documentary evidence whatsoever, be called to depose before the Committee and provide the said evidence in the form of a documented itemised inventory with amounts, date etc" she further wrote, adding, "I wish to place on record that in keeping with the principles of natural Justice I wish to exercise my right to cross-examine Hiranandani," she added.
She also stated in her letter that the parliamentary committees lacked criminal jurisdiction and wrote about the importance of involving law enforcement agencies in such cases. Moitra also asked the panel to answer in writing and place on record their decision to either allow or disallow such cross-examination.
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