Mahua Moitra alleges PMO 'forced' businessman Darshan Hiranandani to sign 'white paper, with no letterhead', describes advocate Dehadrai 'jilted-ex'
Shubhadeep Choudhury
New Delhi, October 20
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Friday claimed the Prime Minister’s office drafted businessman Darshan Hiranandani’s affidavit submitted before the Lok Sabha’s ethics committee.
Hiranandani, top real-estate developer, deposed in his affidavit on Thursday that Moitra had provided him her Parliament’s login credentials so that he could post questions directly on her behalf.
I welcome answering questions to CBI & Ethics Committee (which has absolute majority of BJP members) if & when they call me. I have neither time nor interest to feed a Adani-directed media circus trial or answer BJP trolls.
I am enjoying Durga Puja in Nadia.
Shubho Sashthi .— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 20, 2023
In the affidavit, the businessman claimed that Moitra thought she could effectively attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi by attacking Gautam Adani and his group.
Hiranandani also alleged that Moitra was getting help from other people like journalist Sucheta Dalal who were supplying her with unverified information relating to Gautam Adani and his companies. Dalal has denied the claim.
In a statement, Moitra said the contents of the letter were “a joke” and remarked that it appeared to have been drafted by “some half-wit in the PMO who doubles up as a creative writer in the BJP’s IT cell”.
Jai Ma Durga. pic.twitter.com/Z2JsqOARCR
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 19, 2023
“The affidavit is on white paper and not on official letterhead or notarised. Why would one of India’s most respected/educated businessmen sign a letter like this on white paper unless a gun was put to his head to do it?”, Moitra said in her statement on Friday.
Moitra asked why Hiranandani had not read out the affidavit in a press conference or tweeted it. “If indeed he has ‘confessed’ to this, why is he not releasing it officially rather than through back channel leaks?” she said.
Moitra asked how Hiranandani, who accompanied the Prime Minister abroad recently as part of his business delegation and “enjoys direct access to every minister and the PMO”, could be “coerced by a first-time Opposition MP into giving her gifts and giving into her demands”.
Moitra, MP from Krishnanagar in West Bengal, alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office had drafted the letter and held a “proverbial gun to Darshan and his father’s (Hiranandani Group co-founder Niranjan Hiranandani) heads and gave them 20 minutes to sign the letter sent to them”.
“They were told they will be finished, the CBI would raid them and all government businesses would stop and all PSU bank financing would be stopped immediately,” she wrote.
“Though tragic, it is totally understandable that Darshan (who is a dear friend) would need to think of what is at stake for him here – namely the continuation of his family businesses built up over decades and the fate of thousands of employees – and buckle under pressure and sign this”, Moitra wrote.
On October 15, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and sought to have Moitra immediately suspended for allegedly taking bribes from Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament. Dubey cited a letter from advocate Jai Dehadrai to back his charges.
In her statement on Friday, Moitra described Dehadrai as a “jilted-ex with an acrimonious personal history with me who wanted to somehow get back at me”.
An attempt was made yesterday afternoon, to coerce me into withdrawing my cbi complaint and letter to @nishikant_dubey in exchange for Henry.
I flatly refused – will give details to CBI.
Messenger is totally innocent – but tells you everything about her.
— Jai Anant Dehadrai (@jai_a_dehadrai) October 20, 2023
