“My friend was threatened to sign on fake affidavit…” Mahua Moitra names Adani, rakes up the alleged cash for query scam in Lok Sabha

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday dropped a damning allegation against businessman Adani on the floor of the Lok Sabha, claiming her ‘friend’, whose affidavit led to her scrutiny by the privilege committee and the eventual expulsion from the 17th Lok Sabha in December 2023 in the alleged ‘cash for query scam’, was procured under coercion. While she didn’t take the name of Darshan Hiranandani, the industrialist, but it was he who had signed the affidavit claiming that he had used Moitra’s parliamentary login credentials to pose questions that targeted the Adani Group.

“I am told in my matter, Mr Adani on October 16, 2023, got my friend to his office in Ahmedabad and threatened him with dire consequences to file a fake affidavit. Actually, it was Mr Adani's in-law, Mr Cyril Shroff, who filed the fake affidavit and forced him to sign it”, Moitra said while speaking on the Union Budget 2024. She was essentially talking on how the budget allocation for the central agencies including the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been reduced in the current fiscal year. The fiery leader claimed that officials from the Adani’s office had been in touch with CBI officials probing the alleged ‘cash for query’ case.

“Even today, every mid-level official in Adani's office calls mid-level officials in the CBI and says, change the 161 statement, call your sir, and give a statement against madam. I am telling the CBI, why are you madam, please take a 164 statement once and for all, don't keep calling back people at Adani's behest to change 161 statements to implicate me, it's going to get you nowhere”, she added

Reiterating the position of the opposition parties that the central agencies have been politically misused by the BJP, the two time MP from Krishnanagar in Bengal highlighted the claims of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh alleging how he was pressurised by present day Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis to file false affidavits against Maha Vikas Aghadi functionaries to destabilize the government.

The Trinamool MP was accused of taking bribes, including expensive gifts, from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani in return for asking in questions in Parliament. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey filed a complaint before the Privilege committee and eventually the committee recommended her expulsion. But the entire matter relied on the affidavit of Hiranandani which Moitra from the beginning had dismissed as untrue. Mocking the reduction in financial allocation for central agencies, Mahua Moitra urged finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to outsource agencies to Adani. “Let us reduce the CBI and the EDI ED budget to zero, let us let, Mr. Adani pay the full 1500 crores, let us outsource it completely to him, end of story. In short, this ‘kursi bajao’ budget is a desperate attempt by the government to stick its head in the sand and act like the mandate of 2024 never happened. But the coming days are going to prove the instability of this government and the inefficacy of its economic policy. We wait for that day”, she concluded. Congress came in support of Mahua Moitra and demanded that the matter now be presented before the privileged committee.