'Cash For Query' Row: Lok Sabha Ethics Panel To Recommend Expulsion Of TMC MP Mahua Moitra

Lok Sabha's Ethics Committee, which investigated the cash-for-query accusations made by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey against TMC MP Mahua Moitra, is said to have suggested in its draft report that she be expelled from the 17th Lok Sabha.

The committee is scheduled to convene on Thursday to finalise the report before forwarding it to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

The draft report has also admonished BSP MP Danish Ali for breaching Rule 275, which deals with the confidentiality of the parliamentary committees' proceedings, of the Lok Sabha's Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.

The report lists the names of various Opposition MPs, Ali among them, who expressed objections to the line of questioning pursued by the committee's chairman, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, in the previous meeting held earlier in the month.

Moitra, along with five Opposition members – Ali, Congress's Uttam Kumar Reddy and V Vaithilingam, CPM's P R Natarajan, and JD(U)'s Giridhari Yadav – staged a walkout from the committee's meeting on 2 November.

Reddy, the Congress MP representing Nalgonda, has requested a postponement of the 9 November meeting by writing to the committee's chairman, Sonkar, due to his nomination filing commitments in Telangana.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Dubey claimed that the Lokpal has passed on his complaint regarding Moitra to the CBI for further investigation.