'Cash For Query': Businessman Hiranandani Accuses TMC MP Mahua Moitra Of Making 'Frequent Demands'

In an 'affidavit', Darshan Hiranandani said he used Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Moitra’s Parliamentary login to 'directly' post questions for the BJP-led central government.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra

New Delhi: Darshan Hiranandani, the CEO of real estate-to-energy group Hiranandani, who has been at the centre of the 'cash for questions' scandal involving Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, appears to have turned approver. In a signed "affidavit", he said he used the Rajya Sabha MP’s Parliamentary login to "directly" post questions for the BJP-led central government, news agency PTI reported Thursday.

The affidavit, reportedly to the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha, comes ahead of the Friday hearing in the defamation case filed by Mahua Moitra against BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who had accused her of taking bribe from a business person in lieu of asking questions in Parliament as an MP. Dubey and advocate earlier this week alleged that Moitra took favours from Hiranandani to raise questions in Parliament. She responded by filing a defamation suit before the Delhi High Court against them.

In his 'affidavit', Darshan claimed that he used Moitra's Parliamentary login after state-owned behemoth Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) booked capacity at the Gujarat-based conglomerate's Dhamra LNG import facility in Odisha and not at his firm's planned facility, PTI reported citing the affidavit.

He claimed that Moitra "made frequent demands" including "expensive luxury items, providing support on renovation of her officially allotted bungalow in Delhi, travel expenses, holidays, etc, apart from providing secretarial and logistical help for her travels within India and to different parts of the world."

What Did Darshan Hiranandani Say?

Hiranandani said he met Moitra at the Bengal Global Business Summit in 2017 when she was an MLA, and since then she became a “close personal friend” over the years whom he had expected to use for getting business in states ruled by opposition parties, PTI reported, quoting the 'affidavit'.

“She shared with me her email ID as Member of Parliament, so that I could send her information, and she could raise the questions in the Parliament. I went along with her proposal,” he said in the affidavit. She “provided me with her Parliament login and password so that I could post the questions directly on her behalf when required.”

Hiranandani claimed that Moitra knew about IOC choosing Dhamra over his company’s LNG terminal. “Based on this information, Moitra drafted a few questions that would have elements to embarrass the government by targeting the Adani group; questions that she could raise in Parliament,” he said in the affidavit, reported PTI.

“Moitra was very ambitious and wanted to make a name for herself at the national level,” he said of her winning the Lok Sabha election from Krishnanagar in West Bengal in 2019.

“She was advised by her friends and advisors that the shortest possible route to fame is by personally attacking Modi.” However, the prime minister enjoyed “an impeccable reputation and was not giving any opportunity to anyone to attack him in policy, governance or personal conduct,” he said, according to PTI.

“As was her wont, she thought that the only way to attack Modi is by attacking Gautam Adani and his group as both were contemporaries and they belong to the same state of Gujarat.” She was helped by the fact that Adani had caused jealousy and had detractors among some sections of business, politics, and media.

“So, she expected support from these sections in her endeavour to malign and embarrass the Prime Minister by targeting Adani,” he said.

Darshan also claimed the TMC leader sought various favours from him. “Many a times I felt that she was taking undue advantage of me and pressurising me to do things I didn’t want to, but I had no choice, because of the aforementioned reasons,” he stated.