Cash-For-Query: Mahua Moitra Alleges Phone Hacking Attempt

FILE PHOTO: TMC's Mohua Moitra has accused Adani of paying cash to unnamed people in return for not asking questions. She added that now Adani has created a fake campaign against "cash for (asking) questions"

Mahua Moitra, Member of Parliament belonging to the Trinamool Congress, alleged on Tuesday that the Centre was targeting her phone. Moitra is being probed by the Parliament’s Ethics Committee over the alleged cash-for-query charge against her.

“Received text and email from Apple warning me that the government is trying to hack into my phone and email. Home Minister’s Office — get a life. Adani and PMO bullies — your fear makes me pity you,” she wrote in a post on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.

In the post, she also tagged Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena MP) and said, “Priyanka Chaturvedi, you and I and three other Indians have got it so far.” Moitra also attached the warning email and SMS text with her tweet to back her claims.

This development comes ahead of the Delhi High Court hearing a defamation suit that has been filed by Moitra in connection with allegations of accepting cash in return for asking questions in Parliament. The allegations against her were made by lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.

Mahua Moitra has been summoned by the Ethics Committee on November 2; she was initially asked to appear before it on October 31.

After receiving the first summons, Moitra sent a letter to Vinod Sonkar, the committee chairperson, in which she said that she would depose on any date after November 5 and not on October 31. She cited some pre-scheduled constituency programme for this move.

The MP from West Bengal’s Krishnanagar, in her two-page letter to Sonkar, said that an affidavit notarised at the Indian High Commission in Dubai on October 20 was submitted to the committee on a suo moto basis. It was released to the media by businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who allegedly paid Moitra to ask questions against Adani Group head Gautam Adani and PM Narendra Modi.

Moitra alleged that Hiranandani — in a public interview to a news channel on October 23, expressed his willingness to express before the committee. Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai gave “oral evidence” to the panel against Moitra on October 26.

Mahua Moitra is Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, from Krishnanagar. She contested and won the seat in the 2019 Indian general election as an All India Trinamool Congress party candidate. Moitra served as a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly representing Karimpur from 2016 to 2019, and has served as the general secretary and national spokesperson of the AITC for the past few years. She was an investment banker before entering politics.

Moitra was born to Dwipendra Lal Moitra on 12 October 1974 in Labac in the Cachar district of Assam. She hails from a Bengali Hindu Brahmin family and has a sister. Moitra went to school in Kolkata. She graduated in economics and mathematics in 1998 from Mount Holyoke College South Hadley in Massachusetts, United States. Moitra has worked as an investment banker for JPMorgan Chase in New York City and London.

She quit her position as vice-president at JPMorgan Chase in London in 2009 to enter Indian politics. Subsequently, she joined the Indian Youth Congress, the youth wing of the Indian National Congress party where she was one of the trusted hands of Rahul Gandhi in the project “Aam Admi Ka Sipahi”. In 2010, she moved to the All India Trinamool Congress party. She was elected from the Karimpur constituency in Nadia district, West Bengal in the Legislative Assembly elections held in 2016. She has been elected as a member of parliament to the 17th Lok Sabha from Krishnanagar, West Bengal.

On 13 November 2021, she was appointed TMC party’s Goa in-charge to prepare the party for contesting the 2022 Goa Legislative Assembly election.

On 10 January 2017, Moitra filed a police complaint against Bharatiya Janata Party MP and Union Minister Babul Supriyo for allegedly “insulting her modesty” during a national television debate. The complaint was later dismissed by the Calcutta High Court. A few days later, Babul Supriyo sent legal notices to Moitra and TMC MPs Saugata Roy and Tapas Paul for allegedly defaming him by accusing him of being involved in the Rose Valley ponzi firm scam.

In January 2020, Zee media filed a defamatory lawsuit against Moitra for apparently making derogatory statements against the channel while addressing reporters. She was granted bail and put on trial by a Delhi Court. She later won the case and the charges against her were dismissed.