'Cash for Query' row: Hiranandani's confession shakes up Mohua Moitra's stand

Mahua Moitra

In a major setback to Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mohua Moitra in the "cash for query" scam, Darshan Hiranandani, on October 19, reportedly shifted sides, taking up the approver's role with his confession about using Mitra's parliamentary login to raise questions from the Centre.

The defamation lawsuit Moitra filed against BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who accused her of accepting "bribes" from a businessman to raise questions in Parliament, will be heard on October 20. Hiranandani's confession came just a day before the scheduled hearing.

The TMC MP, on October 20, said on microblogging site X, formerly Twitter, that she would go ahead with "answering questions to CBI & Ethics Committee" if she is summoned.  "I am enjoying Durga Puja in Nadia. Shubho Sashthi," she further added amid the ongoing festivities in the state.

I welcome answering questions to CBI & Ethics Committee (which has absolute majority of BJP members) if & when they call me. I have neither time nor interest to feed a Adani-directed media circus trial or answer BJP trolls.
I am enjoying Durga Puja in Nadia.
Shubho Sashthi .

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 20, 2023

Moitra, in the late hours of October 19, shared a two-page press note on microblogging site X, ripping apart Hiranandani's confession and Dubey's allegations of graft levelled against her. In the note to the media, she questioned Hiranandani's intentions behind the charges.

"Why has Darshan not done a press conference and read this out or tweeted it himself or his company put it out? If indeed he has “confessed” to this why is he not releasing it officially rather than through back channel leaks? Moitra questioned in the press release.

"Every effort is being made to malign me and isolate and scare those near and dear to me. My closest have been threatened with ED and CBI raids in the next few days," she further noted in her long note.

Jai Ma Durga. pic.twitter.com/Z2JsqOARCR

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— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 19, 2023

In a signed affidavit, a copy of which was reviewed by PTI, Hiranandani admitted to using Moitra’s Parliamentary login to ask questions targeting Adani 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.

He had alleged that Moitra "made frequent demands" for "expensive luxury items, providing support on the 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".

Early this week, Dubey and Moitra's ex-partner and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai alleged that Moitra had requested favours from Hiranandani in order to raise issues in the Parliament. She retaliated by launching a defamation lawsuit against them with the Delhi High Court.

Meanwhile, Dubey’s complaint has been referred by the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to Parliament’s Ethics Committee. Hiranandani, who had this week reposted news about the Adani group starting port operations in Kerala on X, couldn’t be reached for comments.

He deactivated his account on microblogging site X after the affidavit was made public.

Hiranandani claimed to have first met Moitra at the Bengal Global Business Summit in 2017 while she was a TMC MLA. He said that over time, she developed into a "close personal friend" whom he had anticipated using to get business in states with opposition-controlled governments.

"Moitra was very ambitious and wanted to make a name for herself at the national level," he said of her Lok Sabha election victory from Bengal's Krishnanagar 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.

"As was her won't, 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." 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.  She was helped by the fact that Adani had caused jealousy and had detractors in 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. Hiranandani said she 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," Hiranandani said she knew about IOC choosing Dhamra over his company’s LNG terminal. "She shared with me her email ID as a 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 claimed.

He said that Moitra "requested" him to continue backing her in her attacks on the Adani group since she was so happy with the response to the first set of questions he had provided her on the Adani group. She "provided me with her Parliament login and password so that I could post the questions directly on her behalf when required."

(With inputs from PTI)