New Delhi: In a split 6:4 verdict, the Parliamentary Ethics Committee that is looking into the cash-for-query allegations against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, approved the recommendation of her expulsion from parliament. Six members had voted in favour of the recommendation and four had voted against it. The recommendations of the committee will be submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday, NDTV reported quoting sources.
The draft report had suggested cancelling Moitra’s Lok Sabha membership, finding her actions “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal,” the report said, adding that among those who voted in its favour is suspended Congress MP Preneet Kaur.
The BJP numbers were down from 7 to 6 today as one member was unable to attend. One MP was missing from the Opposition side too. Uttam Reddy, one of the five MPs who staged a walkout supporting Mahua on November 2, is filing his nomination for the Telangana Assembly elections.
The Committee concluded that Mahua Moitra had shared user ID with “unauthorised persons”, and took cash and amenities from businessman Darshan Hiranandani and it was a “serious misdemeanour” on her part which calls for “serious punishment”.
In its report, it recommended that a “legal, intensive, institutional and time-bound investigation” be held into the matter. The BJP’s Nishikant Dubey, who had originally flagged the matter to the Speaker, has said that anti-corruption body Lokpal has ordered a CBI probe into the corruption allegations against Moitra.
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