TMC MP Mahua Moitra.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: Facing 'cash for query in Parliament' allegations, a combative Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Saturday said the NIC should release information on login access of all MPs and verify if they were physically present there.
Keeping up her attack on the Adani group, she also demanded a CBI probe into allegations against the company related to coal imports.
Moitra was reacting after BJP's Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey claimed she was in India when her parliamentary ID was used in Dubai and that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) had disclosed the information to probe agencies.
Dubey, who has accused Moitra of accepting bribes and favours for asking questions in Lok Sabha at the behest of businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target the Adani Group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, later said he has moved the Lokpal.
Hitting back, Moitra posted on X that unknown Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) owning shares of the Adani group was a bigger national security concern and "not an email ID that every PA & every unchecked intern team of every MP has publicly & accesses at will".
The Krishnanagar MP added the CBI should first probe the Adani group over coal prices allegations, and also said that she was not ready to accept a "deal to shut up for six months".
She said she got a message about an impending CBI raid. “I am busy with Durga Puja. I invite CBI to come home & count my pairs of shoes. But first please file FIR into Rs 13,000 crore coal money Adani stole from Indians," she said.
In a series of posts on X, Moitra said, "Request NIC to please release all details of MPs publicly to show they were physically present in place from where IDs were accessed by their PAs & researchers/interns/staff. Don't use Fake Degree wala for leak, make this public NOW.”
“Unknown FPIs own Adani shares whose origin SEBI cannot find and Adani gets MHA clearance to buy Mumbai airport. This is the real question of National security. Not email ID that every PA & every unchecked intern team of every MP has publicly & accesses at will,” she said.
“Sorry Mr. Adani. I am not taking your deal to shut up for six months in return for peace. And nor am I taking the second deal where I am allowed to attack you but not the PM."
“Adani used to CASH TO NOT QUESTION. Now he is forced to create a fake CASH FOR QUESTIONS (sic),” she alleged.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had accused the Adani Group of fleecing people to the tune of Rs 12,000 crore through coal imports and sought a probe.
Moitra has been at the centre of a political storm after Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla citing a letter he received from advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, who is reportedly Moitra's former partner, on the bribery allegations.
Birla has referred Dubey's complaint to Parliament's Ethics Committee, which has called Dubey and Dehadrai for oral evidence on October 26.
In a signed affidavit submitted to the committee, Hiranandani admitted to using Moitra's parliamentary login to ask questions targeting Adani after state-owned behemoth Indian Oil Corporation booked capacity at the Gujarat-based conglomerate's Dhamra LNG import facility in Odisha and not at his firm's planned facility.
Moitra, whose party has kept quiet on the issue, has persistently targeted the Adani Group and Dubey, dismissing the allegations against her.
"Adani may use BJP agencies to browbeat competition and buy airports but just try doing it with me," she had said on October 15 after the allegations surfaced.
Adani Group had in a statement referred to the complaint by Dubey to say that they "corroborate" the conglomerate's previous statements that "some groups and individuals have been working overtime to harm our name, goodwill and market standing".
In Parliament and outside, Moitra had been levelling allegations against the Adani Group for the last couple of years.
After US short-seller Hindenburg Research in January came out with a report alleging financial fraud and stock manipulation at Adani Group, she had targeted the government over the functioning of the conglomerate helmed by billionaire Gautam Adani. The group had denied all allegations.