TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay had told Times of India that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had called and informed him on Thursday that the Lok Sabha would take up Moitra’s case on Friday noon.

“I spoke with the Speaker, and he said that this committee report along with other reports will be tabled. I said that TMC MP Mahua Moitra should be given a chance to speak,” Sudip Bandyopadhyay was quoted by ANI as saying.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and Ethics Committee chairperson Vinod Kumar laid on the table the first Report (Hindi and English versions) of the Committee on Ethics. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion in the Lok Sabha for discussion on the panel report seeking the expulsion of TMC member Mahua Moitra.

As the proceedings began on Friday, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said TMC MP Mahua Moitra should be given the opportunity to express her views on the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee report.

The probe into ‘cash-for-query’

The Ethics Committee had investigated the allegations made by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Mahua Moitra that she took a bribe from businessman Darshan Hiranandani for asking questions in the Lok Sabha.

The committee adopted its 500-page report on November 9, recommending Moitra’s expulsion from the 17th Lok Sabha in view of her “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct.” The report tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday also recommended that Moitra “may be expelled” from the Lok Sabha and called for an “intense, legal, institutional inquiry” by the central government in a “time-bound manner”.

Moitra can be expelled only if the House votes in favour of the panel’s recommendation.

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Published: 08 Dec 2023, 02:37 PM IST