A day before TMC MP Mahua Moitra appears before the Lok Sabha's Ethics Committee, probing BJP MP Nishikant Dubey's "cash-for-query" allegations against her, sources privy to the matter alleged that nearly 47 log-ins to her parliamentary account were made from Dubai.
He has accused Moitra of asking questions, which were keyed in through her parliamentary account, at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani in return for bribes and favours from the Dubai-based scion of a well-known business family.
Moitra has admitted that she shared her log-in credentials with Hiranandani, whom she has described as a close friend for a long time, but has ruled out any pecuniary motivation and asserted that the questions were always hers.
Dubey has accused her of compromising national interest by sharing her parliamentary portal log-in and password with an outsider, and has cited the agreement MPs sign to keep the details secret to demand action against her.
"If this news is true, then all the MPs of the country should stand against Mahua ji's corruption. Hiranandani asked questions in Lok Sabha for Hiranandani. Are we MPs for promoting the selfish interests of capitalists," Dubey said on X.
The committee has taken assistance from the Union ministries of home and Information Technology to probe the matter and is believed to have received details from them to its queries.
What has added to Moitra's woes is an affidavit by the businessman in which he admitted to giving bribes to her so that she could ask questions to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She has claimed that Hiranandani was coerced by the government to file the affidavit and has sought to question him during her appearance at the panel, an unlikely eventuality as it is not a standard practice in the working of such parliamentary panels.
The TMC MP has claimed that the Adani Group is behind the "bogus" charges due to her strident criticism of the business conglomerate.