Cash-for-query row: LS Ethics Committee asks Mahua Moitra to appear on Nov 2, says no further extension will be granted

The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on Saturday asked Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra to appear before it on November 2, in connection with the cash-for-query case. The Committee told Moitra that it won't entertain her extension plea beyond this date.

Earlier on Friday, Moitra had written to the Ethics Committee, which is probing the cash-for-query allegations levelled against her, expressing her inability to appear before it on October 31, saying she will be available only after November 5.

In her letter to panel chairperson Vinod Sonkar, Moitra said she "eagerly looks forward to physically attending and presenting her defence against the slanderous charges" and that she should be allowed to exercise her right to cross-examine businessman Darshan Hiranandani.

She also said Hiranandani should appear before the committee and provide a "detailed verified list of the alleged gifts and favours he allegedly provided to me".

Thereafter, the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee extended the date of appearance, asking her to depose before it on November 2 as against October 31 earlier.

The panel is probing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey's allegations that Moitra accepted bribes and favours for asking questions in Lok Sabha at the behest of businessman Hiranandani. On Thursday, Dubey, and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai gave "oral evidence" to the panel against the Trinamool Congress MP.

Meanwhile, in an interview with India Today, Moitra said that the only things she had received from Darshan Hiranandani, the CEO of the Hiranandani Group, as gifts were "one scarf, one lipstick and one eye shadow".

"The only things I have received from Darshan as a close personal friend was one scarf for my birthday present three or four years ago, then he called from the Dubai airport asking if I wanted something," Mahua Moitra told India Today in her first interview since the cash-for-query row began.

She added, "There is a brand called Bobbi Brown and he bought me a lipstick from the brand, and eye shadow".

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