Paid for Mahua Moitra’s Luxury Items, Travel: The Businessman’s 10 Big Claims

New Delhi:

In a major twist in the alleged ‘cash for query’ scam, businessman Darshan Hiranandani has claimed that he used the login ID of Trinamool Congressman Mahua Moitra to query Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Adani Group.

Mr. Hiranandani alleged in a signed statement that Ms. Moitra “regularly made demands,” including “expensive luxury items and logistical assistance for her vacations.” His affidavit also claimed that she had interactions with many Congress leaders, “including Rahul Gandhi, on matters related to Adani companies”.

Here are 10 stunning revelations made by Darshan Hiranandani about Mahua Moitra:

1. Mahua Moitra wanted to quickly make a name for himself at the national level. Her friends and advisors told her that the shortest route to fame is to personally attack Prime Minister Modi.
2. Ms Moitra thought that the only way to attack Prime Minister Modi is to attack Gautam Adani as both were contemporaries and belong to the same state of Gujarat.
3. She framed a few questions that would contain elements that could embarrass the government by targeting the Adani group.
4. She shared with me her email address as a Member of Parliament so that I could send her information and she could ask the questions in Parliament. Later she gave me her Parliament username and password so I could ask the questions directly.
5. There were others who also helped her in this targeted attack. She interacted with many Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, on matters related to the Adani companies.
6. She also interacted frequently with international journalists from the Financial Times, the New York Times, the BBC and also several Indian publications.
7. She also received unverified details from various sources, including some claiming to be former employees of the Adani group. Certain information was shared with me, based on which I continued to ask questions via her parliamentary login.
8. I felt that through her I would get support in other opposition-ruled states because she had extremely good ties with other opposition leaders like Mr. Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor and Pinaki Mishra.
9. She regularly made demands on me and kept asking me for various favors. This included donating her expensive luxury items, providing support for the renovation of her officially assigned bungalow in Delhi, travel expenses, vacations, etc., in addition to providing secretarial and logistical assistance for her travels within India and to different parts of the world.
10. Many times I felt like she was unnecessarily taking advantage of me and pressuring me to do things I didn’t want to do, but I had no choice due to the reasons mentioned above.

Mahua Moitra “took bribes to raise questions” in Parliament on behalf of businessman Darshan Hiranandani to attack the Adani group and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dubey alleged last week. Ms Moitra has denied the allegations and said she is open to any investigation.

(Disclaimer: New Delhi Television is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group company.)