AMN / NEW DELHI
A cash for query complaint against TMC MP Mahua Moitra has been referred to the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has alleged that she had taken bribes to ask questions in Parliament on behalf of a businessman to target the Adani group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources said last week, Mr. Dubey had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in this regard. He had accused Ms Moitra of breach of parliamentary privilege, contempt and criminal conspiracy. However, the TMC MP has denied the allegations.
Mahua Moitra on Tuesday approached the Delhi High Court seeking to restrain BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, an advocate and several social media platforms and media houses from posting, circulating or publishing any alleged fake and defamatory content against her.
Justice Sachin Datta is likely to hear the matter later this week.
Moitra, a member of Lok Sabha representing Krishnanagar in West Bengal, sought permanent injunction and damages against Dubey, advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, social media platform X, search engine Google, YouTube and 15 media houses and to restrain them from making, publishing, circulating per se defamatory, ex facie false and malicious statements against her.
Dubey has accused Moitra of taking “bribes” from a businessman to ask questions in Parliament and urged Speaker Om Birla to constitute an “inquiry committee” to look into the charges against her.
Citing a letter he has received from the advocate, Dubey said the lawyer has shared “irrefutable” evidence of bribes exchanged between the TMC leader and a businessman.
In his letter to the Lok Sabha speaker, Dubey claimed 50 of 61 questions she asked in Lok Sabha till recently were focused on the Adani Group, the business conglomerate which the TMC MP has often accused of malpractices, more so after it was at the receiving end of a critical report of short-selling from Hindenburg.
In her plea in the high court, Moitra denied the allegations and claimed that they were designed to damage her reputation in relation to the false allegations made by Dubey and Dehadrai against her for alleged exchange of bribe for asking questions in Parliament.
She has sought a direction to the defendants to remove or take down all the alleged defamatory and scurrilous content, including posts, tweets, re-tweets, caption, posted at their respective platforms against her.
Moitra further sought a decree and an order directing “defendant no. 1 (Dubey) and 2 (Dehadrai) to publish a retraction and an apology to the plaintiff in three English newspapers, three Hindi newspapers and three Bengali newspapers for the false and defamatory statements / allegations” made by them against her.
She has also provisionally valued the damages at Rs 2 crore and said the defendants be directed to pay her damages that shall be quantified at a later stage on account of the defamatory, derogatory and baseless statements made by Dubey and Dehadrai and published by X, Google and several media houses on their respective platforms.