Nishikant Dubey accuses Adhir Ranjan of leaking ethics panel report on Mahua Moitra, says, ‘let the report be tabled’

Cash-for-query case: Nishikant Dubey of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday, December 4 alleged that Congress MP and leader of opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury leaked the Ethics Committee report on Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra before its tabled. The report was scheduled to be tabled after 12 pm today. While Congress MP Shashi Tharoor claimed that the report was skipped when they laid papers on the table.

In an interview with ANI, the BJP MP also said he was unaware of the report’s contents.

“…Let the report be tabled. I don’t know what is mentioned in the report…What I had to say, I said before the Ethics Committee…I will be able to make a comment only after the report is tabled. The report will be tabled after 12 pm…I don’t know how was the report leaked, I think Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury leaked it…” Nishikant Dubey said, as quoted by ANI.

According to several media reports, the committee in its report has recommended the expulsion of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra in a “cash-for-query” case.

In reponse to Dubey’s allegations, Congress leader and LoP in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “We will oppose that such an expulsion should not be done. We have written a letter and we have been saying that the issues of Parliament should be dealt inside the Parliament,” while speaking with ANI.

Mahua Moitra, MP for the Trinamool Congress, will be the subject of an Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of ‘cash-for-question’ on December 4, the first day of the Winter Session.

The listed agenda of Lok Sabha mentions that Ethics Committee chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar and member of the Committee Aparjita Sarangi will be presenting “on the Table the First Report (Hindi and English versions) of the Committee on Ethics”.

Shashi Tharoor said, “…The item of filing of the Ethics Committee report was skipped when they laid papers on the table… We have a number of very fundamental questions about this… In any procedure involving expulsion, there has to be the opportunity for cross-examination of witnesses for all sides to be heard… If an MP criticises the government on the grounds that have not been substantiated and on the basis of charges that would not stand up in any court of law, then we have real trouble with how the parliamentary system is working… I am hopeful that the government is rethinking it,” while speaking to ANI.

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