'Mahua Moitra gave Lok Sabha website login access to businessman,' BJP MP writes to Ashwini Vaishnaw

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has written to Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and MoS Rajeev Chandrashekhar to probe whether TMC's Mahua Moitra had given access to her login credentials for the Lok Sabha website to businessman Darshan Hiranandani and his real-estate conglomerate Hiranandani Group so that they could "utilise it for their own personal gain", India Today reported on Monday.

Dubey had on Sunday written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, claiming that a Supreme Court lawyer had shared "irrefutable" evidence of bribes exchanged between Moitra and Hiranandani to ask questions in the Parliament. He claimed that Moitra asked approximately 50 questions in Parliament that sought information "with the intent of protecting or perpetuating business interests of Darshan Hiranandani and his company". The MP urged the Speaker to form a probe panel to look into the charges against Moitra.

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In his latest letter, Dubey reiterated the charges and urged the IT Ministry to probe if Mahua Moitra had given access to her Lok Sabha website login credentials to Hiranandani. He called the allegation "possibly the most damning and grave of all the charges" made against Moitra. The MP said that if the claims are found to be true, it would constitute a serious criminal breach of trust as well as a violation of India's national security.

The BJP MP also asked the ministry to initiate a probe to ascertain the IP address of all login credentials of the TMC leader's Lok Sabha account and to determine if there were any instances where it was accessed at a location where she was not present. "In addition, I request that you determine whether there are any instances in which her Lok Sabha account was accessed at a location in which she was not present," Dubey wrote in the letter.

In his first letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, Dubey claimed that 50 of 61 questions Moitra had asked in Lok Sabha focused on the Adani Group - the business conglomerate that came under fire in January this year following some damning claims made by US short-seller Hindenburg. "The questions were also often focused on the Adani Group, another business conglomerate, Hiranandani Group was bidding for business against," Dubey claimed in his letter to Birla.

In a tweet earlier today, MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar shared two screenshots of questions asked in the Parliament. He said he had learnt from news reports that "this Parliamentary question was likely asked by an MP at the behest of a Data center company". The minister said that it was true that this company was actively and aggressively lobbying for data Localisation. "Language used in PQ is very similar (linking need for data localization to data breaches) to that used when the head of this company met me," he said.

Chandrasekhar, however, said that he was not aware or privy to the full facts or background on this - "but if it is true then it's a terrible travesty and misuse of PQs (parliamentary questions)".

The Hiranandani Group has, however, denied the allegations by Dubey, saying that the charges against it have no merit and that they have always been in the business of business and not in the business of politics. "We have always been in the business of business and not in the business of politics. Our group has always worked with the government in the interest of the nation and will continue doing so," a spokesperson of the Hiranandani Group was quoted as saying by NDTV.