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regular-article-logo Tuesday, 29 July 2025

CBI hands probe report on cash-for-query controversy involving TMC leader Mahua Moitra to Lokpal

'It’s the Lokpal’s prerogative to reveal the findings or not, and decide the future course of action,' a official told The Telegraph

Imran Ahmed Siddiqui Published 29.07.25, 07:16 AM
Mahua Moitra

Mahua Moitra File picture

The CBI has submitted a “sealed-cover” report to anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal on the cash-for-query controversy involving Trinamool Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra, agency officials said on Monday.

“It’s the Lokpal’s prerogative to reveal the findings or not, and decide the future course of action,” a CBI official told The Telegraph.

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“Our investigation report deals with the allegations that Moitra engaged in corrupt practices — including taking bribes and other undue advantages from (her businessman friend) Darshan Hiranandani — thereby compromising her parliamentary privileges, and that she created a national security threat by sharing her Lok Sabha login credentials.”

The Krishnanagar MP had in December 2023 been expelled from the last Lok Sabha after an Ethics Committee report held her guilty of “unethical conduct” in the cash-for-query controversy.

The allegations had been brought against her by BJP member Nishikant Dubey, on a complaint from Moitra’s estranged partner, Jai Anant Dehadrai.

Moitra, however, won from Krishnanagar again in the 2024 general election, defeating the BJP’s Amrita Roy.

Dubey had forwarded to the Lokpal a copy of his written complaint to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against Moitra. On the ombudsman’s orders, the CBI began a preliminary inquiry against the Bengal MP.

After receiving the findings of the preliminary inquiry, the Lokpal directed the agency to register a case. The CBI filed an FIR in March last year against Moitra and Hiranandani under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Ethics Committee report had found Moitra guilty of “unethical conduct” for sharing her parliamentary portal login credentials with others, and of “contempt of the House” for allegedly accepting gifts from Hiranandani in exchange for favours.

Moitra is accused of accepting bribes and other benefits from Hiranandani to ask questions in the Lok Sabha targeting the Adani group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She also faces allegations of compromising national security by sharing the login details of her Lok Sabha account with Hiranandani.

Moitra had dismissed the charges at the outset, saying she had been targeted for standing up to the government and exposing Adani’s alleged nexus with Modi and his administration.

She had accepted sharing her portal login credentials with her friend Hiranandani but argued that this was common practice among MPs.

She had also spoken publicly about accepting the odd gift from Hiranandani, but asserted they did not involve any quid pro quo or compromise her integrity as an MP.

“There is no evidence of any cash, of any gifts anywhere. Recommendation of expulsion is solely based on (the fact) that I have shared my Lok Sabha login ID,” she had said.

After her expulsion, Moitra had told reporters: “This Lok Sabha has presided over one of the most tenacious witch-hunts of one of 78 women MPs, a first-timer, a single woman with no political lineage….”

She had compared her expulsion to a “hanging” by a “kangaroo court”.

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