Cash-for-query case: Sitaram Yechury sides with Mahua Moitra

New Delhi: In what is seen as support for Mahua Moitra, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the cash for query complaint against the embattled Trinamool Congress MP reached the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee mainly because it was linked to the Adani Group.

Yechury said, he is not aware of what kind of evidence the Ethics Committee has against the MP but said he has not seen "such alertness" in the past when it came to dealing with such complaints by the Parliamentary panel.

"I have been in the Ethics Committee for 10-12 years and I haven't seen it acting with such alertness in the past. If you start examining who got what gifts, then there will be many cases before the Ethics Committee. Why only this one? Because the question is about Adani. Isn't it the main issue? That is why it has reached the committee so soon," he said.

"Don't others take gifts? The issue is about questions about Adani Enterprises. You won't examine other questions? So one will not take gifts for other questions?" Yechury told a press conference.

He was responding to questions on the recent complaint against Mahua lodged by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai that she provided her Parliament log-in credentials to a businessman-friend Darshan Hiranandani and took gifts and cash in return. She denied the allegations.

Asked whether it was proper to share log-in, Yechury said giving such details to unconnected persons was not proper. He said the log-in credentials of an MP could be available with his "official" personal assistant as the lawmaker may be on the move. 

"Normally we should not give password and login but all official PAs of MPs have their log in details. When we are on the move, we tell the PA to submit questions. Giving it to some unknown person or to someone outside the system is not right," he said.

Mahua has been asked to appear before the Ethics Committee on November 2 after she expressed inability to be present on October 31 and sought a date after November 5.