Mahua Moitra asked to vacate minister bungalow; Lok Sabha ethics panel writes to Housing ministry

There's fresh trouble brewing for Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra. Four days after Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha over the cash-for-query allegations, the Housing Committee of Parliament has written to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to direct the former MP to vacate her official bungalow. Moitra's official address in Delhi is 9B, Telegraph Lane, HC Mathur Lane.

Last week, Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha after the House adopted the report of the Ethics Committee that held her guilty of accepting gifts and illegal gratification from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in the parliament.

The panel noted that such acts had an irrepressible impact on national security.

In Lok Sabha, the motion stated the Trinamool MP's "conduct has further been found to be unbecoming as a member of parliament for accepting gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman to further his interest which is a serious misdemeanour and highly deplorable conduct" on her part.

On Monday, Moitra moved the Supreme Court saying that the decision to expel her was "illegal". The TMC leader has vehemently denied the allegations.

Following her expulsion, Moitra, who was the MP from West Bengal's Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat, attacked the ethics panel for "acting without proof". She said the panel was becoming a "weapon" to "bulldoze" the Opposition. She alleged that the Ethics Committee and its report "broke every rule in the book".

The TMC leader said she was denied a chance to defend herself in the House when the ethics panel's report was taken up.

She also said she was not able to cross-examine her estranged partner and Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who levelled the 'cash-for-query' allegations against her.

Earlier, ethics committee Chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar tabled the first report of the panel on a complaint filed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey against Moitra.

In October, Dubey, on the basis of a complaint submitted by Dehadrai, alleged that Moitra had asked questions in the Lok Sabha in exchange for cash and gifts from Hiranandani to mount an attack on industrialist Gautam Adani and PM Narendra Modi.

In an affidavit to the ethics committee on October 19, Hiranandani claimed that Moitra provided him with her login ID and password for the Lok Sabha members' website. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already filed a preliminary FIR in the case.