Cash-For-Query Case: CBI’s FIR Names Mahua Moitra & Businessman Hiranandani

Pic courtesy The Indian Express

New Delhi: An FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the cash-for-query case has named Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and expelled MP Mahua Moitra as well as businessman Darshan Hiranandani, officials said on Sunday.

The FIR, which was registered on March 21, has charged Moitra and Hiranandani with “criminal conspiracy, offences related to public servant being bribed, offence relating to bribing of a public servant and abetment.”

Moitra, who will contest from Krishnanagar again in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, has been accused of asking questions in Parliament in exchange for cash and gifts from Dubai-based businessman Hiranandani, targeting industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular.

CBI’s FIR follows directions from Lokpal after receiving findings from the central agency’s preliminary inquiry into the cash-for-query allegations made by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.

CBI teams carried out searches at multiple locations linked to Moitra in Kolkata, Krishnanagar and Karimpur in West Bengal on Friday.

Moitra, who was expelled from Lok Sabha in December for “unethical conduct” following a Parliamentary Committee probe into the allegations, has dismissed all charges against her, calling those “politically motivated.”

She wrote to the Election Commission on Sunday alleging that the CBI is “harassing” her and “throttling her election campaign efforts.”

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been investigating the case ever since charges were made against Moitra last year.