TMC MP Mahua Moitra slaps legal notice on BJP MP Nishikant Dubey over bribe allegations
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has sued BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai over "defamatory" allegations that she accepted "bribes" to pose questions in the Lok Sabha, reported India Today.
Dubey used Dehadrai's letter to assert that it contained compelling proof of monetary transactions between Moitra and businessman Darshan Hiranandani, likening it to the 2005 'Cash for Query' controversy.
The BJP leader has further called on Speaker Om Birla and Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to launch independent inquiries into the matter.
The Hiranandani group dismissed the accusations made by Nishikant Dubey and said it was “not involved in the business of politics”.
According to the India Today report, in the notice dated October 16, Mahua Moitra, an MP from West Bengal's Krishnanagar, said that charges that she accepted "any benefit of any kind to perform her duties as a Member of Lok Sabha" were "defamatory, false, baseless, and not supported by even a shred of evidence".
She accused Nishikant Dubey and Jai Anant Dehadrai of attacking her reputation and goodwill to "extract personal and political vendetta".
The notice says that Mahua Moitra and Nishikant Dubey, both MPs, have clashed on several occasions in the past over "differences of opinion". It mentions that Dubey had backed a privilege notice against Moitra and had called for the cancellation of her membership to Parliament, the report said.
"In March 2023, our client (Mahua Moitra) questioned the authenticity of the claims of Nishikant Dubey regarding his educational qualifications and corresponding disclosure in his election nomination papers," the notice said, according to the India Today report.
Moitra has accused Nishikant Dubey of being "rattled" by her drawing attention to the issue and had responded by "making and endorsing false and defamatory allegations" against her without verifying the claims, it said.
The notice further says that Mahua Moitra and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai shared a "close friendship" for several years, but their relationship went sour due to "personal reasons and matters started to become acrimonious".
Dehadrai "threatened Mahua Moitra with malicious and vulgar messages, and trespassed into her official government residence and stole some personal possessions," the notice mentioned, the report stated.
The notice added that a complaint was registered against Dehadrai on two separate instances - on March 25 and September 23 of this year.
Mahua Moitra has asked Nishikant Dubey to take back the allegations levelled against her in his letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and demanded a written apology from both Dubey and Dehadrai.
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