Who is Jai Anant Dehadrai, the complainant in the Moitra 'cash for questions' controversy?

Jai Anant Dehadrai will perhaps be best remembered for the spat with Mahua Moitra, a Trinamool Congress lawmaker who allegedly took bribes to ask questions in parliament.

On December 8, Lok Sabha expelled Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on the basis of the report by the house's ethics committee.

The genesis of Moitra's expulsion is a complaint by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey to the speaker of lok sabha, Dubey in turn referred to a complaint by supreme court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai.

Who is Jai Anant Dehadrai?

From working as a law clerk to a Supreme Court judge who was subsequently appointed as the Chief Justice of India and a postgraduate in law from the University of Pennsylvania, Jai Anant Dehadrai, or ‘Jai’ (35) as he is called, is a well-known name in legal circles for the kind of cases he handles.

However, he will perhaps be best remembered for the spat with Mahua Moitra, a Trinamool Congress lawmaker who allegedly took bribes to ask questions in parliament.

Though Dehadrai’s main area of practice is white-collar crime, he has fought many cases on his own on a range of other issues. He challenged provisions of the Delhi Prison Rules that capped the number of visits by a prisoner’s relatives and is currently fighting the case in the Supreme Court.
In 2017, Dehadrai fought for a family that was slapped with a huge medical bill after losing their seven-year-old daughter to dengue. He fought a litigation for an NGO fighting for disability rights against the Delhi government for not making public transport accessible.

Dehadrai also represents a Singapore-based company that wants to initiate defamation against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy for levelling allegations against them in 2012 pertaining to the Aircel-Maxis scam.

Law school and career

According to Dehadrai’s LinkedIn profile, he finished his school at Delhi Public School RK Puram in 2006. He graduated from the Indian Law Society’s Law College in Pune in 2011.

A classmate told Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity that “Jai was an exceptionally brilliant student. However, it was very evident in his interactions with students and professors that he had air of arrogance around himself.”

Dehadrai’s LinkedIn profile shows he interned at the office of the Chief Justice of India from April 2010 to June 2010 and worked as a research intern with Tata Motors in Pune from November 2010 to February 2011.

He started his career as a lawyer with Karanjawala & Co., which has fought many controversial and high-profile cases over 40 years. He then pursued his masters in law from the University of Pennsylvania (2012-2013) and a course in corporate diplomacy from the Wharton School around the same time.

After a stint at Kline & Specter in Philadelphia (2013-14), Dehadrai returned to India and worked as a law clerk under Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, then a judge of the Supreme Court, from 2014 to 2015. Bobde was the CJI from November 2019 to April 2021.

According to Dehadrai’s social media profile, he worked in the chambers of Atmaram Nadkarni, a former Additional Solicitor General at the Supreme Court. Dehadrai then started his own practice. He appears in many cases in the Supreme Court and High Court.

Dehadrai vs Moitra

According to Moitra’s defamation plea, Dehadrai was a close friend and recently, “the cessation of this friendship soon took an acrimonious turn.”

At the heart of the dispute is a Rottweiler called Henry. Moitra claims the dog is hers, while Dehadrai said in a police complaint that he had purchased the dog for Rs 75,000.

Moitra claimed that Dehadrai trespassed into her official residence in March and stole some personal possessions, paintings and Henry, whom he subsequently returned. Similarly, he trespassed into her property in September as a result of which she filed a police complaint. However, they settled the matter and she withdrew the complaint.

Moitra’s plaint further claimed that Dehadrai made ‘baseless’ allegations on the ‘cash-for-query’ row.

Dehadrai maintains that he is Henry’s ‘father’ and he did not steal the pet dog. The lawyer took to social media to express his love for the pet dog. People aware of the development told Moneycontrol that his friendship with Moitra soured in December 2022 because he did not like some of her friends.

Cash for query row

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on October 15, asking him to constitute an inquiry committee against Moitra and her immediate suspension from the house. Dubey highlighted a detailed complaint by Dehadrai, which he had received.

As per the letter, Moitra purportedly asked questions in Parliament in exchange for gifts and cash from businessman Darshan Hiranandani, targeting the prime minister and home minister. The Lok Sabha ethics committee is expected to begin questioning the parties involved on October 26.

Moitra sent legal notices to Dubey and Dehadrai and initiated contempt proceedings against them. She took to social media to call Dehadrai a ‘jilted ex.’ In a fresh twist to the case, Hiranandani reiterated the charges against her.

Hiranandani is CEO of real estate and infrastructure company Hiranandani Group. He is also CEO of the Hiranandani family office, Nidar Group.
Dehadrai had alleged that senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared for Moitra, had a conflict of interest as he tried to mediate the dispute between them. Sankaranarayanan withdrew from the case, which now stands adjourned to October 31.