'Cash For Query' Row: Mahua Moitra Expelled From Lok Sabha As Lower House Accepts Ethics Panel's Recommendation

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has been expelled from the Lok Sabha over the Cash for Query row after the Lower House of Parliament accepted the recommendations in the Ethics Committee report.

The Ethics Panel report recommending expulsion of Mahua Moitra was tabled in the Parliament on Friday.

The panel headed by BJP lawmaker Vinod Kumar called for “severe punishment" as well as a government inquiry in its report.

Moitra is facing allegations that she took cash and other gifts to ask questions in Parliament. 

The motion to expel Moitra was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and was adopted by the Lok Sabha by a voice vote.

The report against Moitra noted "allegations of accepting illegal gratification (are) clearly established and are undeniable", and that "taking gifts from (a) businessman to whom she handed over log-in (details) amounts to a quid pro quo... unbecoming of an MP and is unethical conduct".

On the point Moitra accepted cash as part of the bribes, the report called for the government to "criminally investigate and unearth the 'money trail'", for which it said it "does not have expertise".

The Ethics Committee's final recommendation was that "...Smt Mahua Moitra, MP, may be expelled from the membership of the Seventeenth Lok Sabha". It also called for "a legal institutional inquiry by the Government... in view of unethical, heinous, and criminal conduct of Smt Mahua Moitra..."

(This is a developing story. More details will follow)