Opposition members of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on Thursday stormed out of a meeting along with Mahua Moitra, accusing the panel's chairperson of asking the TMC MP personal and unethical questions.
The committee chairman and BJP MP Vinod Sonkar, who continued the deliberations even after the walkout, later counter-accused the opposition members of behaving unethically and boycotting to detract from allegations against Moitra.
Talking to reporters after the meeting ended, Sonkar alleged that objectionable words were used against the committee's functioning and against him.
"We found the ethics committee chairperson's questions to Moitra undignified and unethical," Congress MP and panel member N Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters after the walkout.
Opposition members of the committee, which had asked Moitra to depose before it in connection with allegations of 'gifts-for-query' against her, also questioned the manner in which the meeting was conducted.
After the meeting, BJP MP and panel member Aparajita Sarangi, however, said that Moitra behaved in an angry, rude and arrogant manner when she was asked about the affidavit submitted to the committee by businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
Moitra has been accused of asking questions, which were keyed in through her parliamentary account, at the behest of Hiranandani in return for bribes and favours from the Dubai-based scion of a well-known business family.
Moitra pleaded innocence to the allegations levelled against her and told the parliamentary committee that the charge is motivated by animus of advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai after she broke her personal relations with him, sources said.
She was supported by opposition MPs, including Reddy and Danish Ali of the BSP, in the meeting while a few BJP members, including V D Sharma, wanted her to respond to the substantive part of the allegations and not make it all about the personal relationship going bad.
Sources said a large part of her deposition before the committee was about her relationship with Dehadrai as she appeared to blame him for the leaks and allegations.
Citing Dehadrai's submission, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had filed a complaint against her with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla who referred the matter to the committee.
Separately talking to reporters, Dubey said Moitra tried to create a wrong narrative about the proceedings and the opposition was perturbed that the ethics panel was headed by an OBC MP.
"No power can save Moitra after all evidences provided by me and others against her," he said.
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