TMC leader Mahua Moitra moves Supreme Court against her expulsion from Lok Sabha

Mahua Moitra was on Friday expelled from the Lok Sabha after a discussion on the report of the Ethics Committee in the 'cash for query' that was tabled in the Lower House.

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra has moved the Supreme Court against her expulsion from the Lok Sabha over ‘Cash-for-Query’ allegations. Mahua Moitra was on Friday expelled from the Lok Sabha after a discussion on the report of the Ethics Committee in the ‘cash for query’ that was tabled in the Lower House.

Mahua Moitra, who was not allowed to speak during the discussion inside the House, the Trinamool leader read out her statement outside the Lok Sabha. She said that the Ethics committee broke every rule.

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“This LS has also seen the weaponisation of the Parliamentary committee. Ironically the Ethics Committee which was set up to serve as a moral compass for members, instead it has been abused egregiously today to do exactly what it was never meant to do, which is to bulldoze the opposition and become another weapon to ‘thok do’ (crush) us into submission,” Mahua Moitra said.

The opposition staged a walkout after the Lok Sabha adopted the motion to expel the TMC MP.

“I am 49 years old and for the next 30 years, I will fight you inside the Parliament and outside; in the gutter and on the streets…We will see the end of you…This is the beginning of your end…We’re going to come back and we’re going to see the end of you,” she added.

The expelled Lok Sabha MP alleged that she has been found guilty of breaching a code of ethics that ‘does not exist’.

Moitra further alleged that the findings are solely based on the written testimonies of two private citizens whose versions contradict each other in material terms and her right to cross-examine them was snatched.

“None of whom I was allowed to cross-examine. One of the two private citizens is my estranged partner, who with malafide intention, masqueraded as a common citizen in front of the committee.

The two testimonies have been used to hang me there at polar opposites to each other,” she said.

The Ethics Committee report probing ‘Unethical Conduct’ of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP had 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”.

The report was adopted by a 6:4 majority in the panel last month. The report on Moitra’s cash-for-questions case revealed that she visited the UAE four times from 2019 to 2023 while her login was accessed several times.