Lokpal seeks more time for decision on filing charge sheet against Mahua Moitra

ANti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal has moved the new delhi heights margaret court seeking deuce thomas more months for a fresh decision on granting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sanction to file a charge sheet against Trinamool Congress (TMC) parliamentarian Mahua Moitra for allegedly accepting money and favours to ask questions in Parliament.Moitra was expelled from Lok Sabha in December 2023 on an ethics panel’s recommendation for allegedly giving her official ID to Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani to post questions on the Lok Sabha portal. She is accused of receiving expensive gifts and funding for trips abroad in return. Hiranandani has corroborated the charges. Moitra, who was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 2024, has denied them.Lokpal sought more time, citing the winter holidays in the intervening period, days after the high court on December 19 set aside its November 12 decision granting sanction for the charge sheet.The high court had said the procedure adopted for the sanction amounted to a form of statutory ingenuity or re-engineering of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, and was wholly alien to the scheme of the statute. The court directed the Lokpal to reconsider the issue of sanction afresh in accordance with the provisions of the Act and to take a decision within one month.A bench of justices Vivek Chaudhary and Renu Bhatnagar on Monday directed that the matter be placed before the original bench that passed the December 19 order. The bench observed that granting an extension would effectively amount to modifying the earlier directions.“The application is filed for extension of time, which amounts to modification. Let the same be listed, after orders from the chief justice. List on 23rd January [Friday].”A bench of justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar passed the December 19 order.In October 2023, Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Nishikant Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, citing lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai’s complaint against Moitra for allegedly accepting money and favours to ask questions in Parliament. The same month, he approached Lokpal over the “cash-for-query” charge against Moitra.In March last year, the Lokpal ordered the CBI to file a case against Moitra. It said there was “sufficient prima facie evidence on record that deserved deeper scrutiny.” Lokpal had directed the federal agency to complete investigations in “all aspects of the allegations” against Moitra within six months. The CBI then submitted its report to Lokpal.