|No proof for cash-for-query charge: Moitra to LS panel

Trinamool Congress lawmaker Mahua Moitra, who is on the verge of getting expelled from Parliament, argued before the ethics committee of the Lok Sabha that there was no substantial evidence in the affidavit of businessman Darshan Hiranandani against her to substantiate the cash-for-query allegations, and accused lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, her former friend, of lodging a bogus complaint after their relationship ended.

Moitra, who deposed before the ethics panel on November 2, alleged that Dehadrai subjected her to "the worst kind of harassment in the last nine months", sent "filthy" messages and lodged the complaint with Parliament out of personal reasons, according to the panel's report that was adopted on Thursday.

The MP, popular for her fiery oratory before accusations of cash for questions surfaced last month, also said that she knew Dehadrai only from October 2019. "In the affidavit, he has written that Hiranandani gave Rs 75 lakh in April [2019]. How did he know when he didn't even know me at that time?" she asked, according to the report.