SC to hear TMC leader Mahua Moitra’s plea challenging expulsion from Lok Sabha today

This came after on Wednesday, Moitra’s plea against her expulsion from Lok Sabha in a cash-for-query case was mentioned before the SC for an urgent hearing.

Following a debate on the Ethics Committee report on the “cash for query” that was presented in the Lower House, Moitra was dismissed from the Lok Sabha on 8 December. Moitra, who was barred from speaking during the House session, claimed that the Ethics committee had broken all of the rules. The expelled Lok Sabha MP alleged that she has been found guilty of breaching a code of ethics that ‘does not exist’.

Moitra had alleged that the findings are solely based on the written testimonies of two private citizens whose versions contradict each other in material terms and her right to cross-examine them was snatched.

“None of whom I was allowed to cross-examine. One of the two private citizens is my estranged partner, who with malafide intention, masqueraded as a common citizen in front of the committee. The two testimonies have been used to hang me there at polar opposites to each other,” she said.

The Ethics Committee report probing ‘Unethical Conduct’ of the TMC MP had recommended that Moitra “may be expelled” from the Lok Sabha and called for an “intense, legal, institutional inquiry” by the central government in a “time-bound manner”. The report was adopted by a 6:4 majority in the panel last month. The report on Moitra’s cash-for-query case revealed that she visited the UAE four times from 2019 to 2023 while her login was accessed several times.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)

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Published: 15 Dec 2023, 07:12 AM IST