Weeks before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday conducted searches on various premises linked to former TMC MP
Mahua Moitra in connection with the alleged cash-for-query case. The searches were carried out at multiple locations, including Kolkata, officials said.
On Saturday morning, teams of the central probe agency reached the 49-year-old TMC leader's residence in Kolkata and other cities, informed about the search proceedings and later started the operation.
Earlier on Thursday, the CBI registered an FIR against Moitra on the directives of the Lokpal, which asked the central agency to submit a report within six months.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Moitra defeated BJP candidate Kalyan Chaubey by over 63,000 votes from the Krishnanagar parliamentary constituency in West Bengal and secured a 45% vote share.
The former MP has now challenged her expulsion in the Supreme Court. She will again contest the 2024 general elections as a TMC candidate from the Krishnanagar seat.
The Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman, earlier issued directions to the CBI after it received the findings of its preliminary inquiry into allegations made against the
TMC leader by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.
Dubey alleged that
Moitra asked questions in Lok Sabha in exchange for cash and gifts from a Dubai-based businessman, Darshan Hiranandani, to mount an attack on industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others.
In its order, the Lokpal stated that after carefully evaluating and considering the entire material on record, "there remains no doubt regarding the fact that the allegations levelled against the Respondent Public Servant (RPS), most of which are supported by cogent evidence, are extremely serious in nature, especially given the position held by her."
The Lokpal stated that a "deeper probe" is required to establish the truth.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
