All India Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that she wanted to drop media houses from the defamation suit she had filed in the “cash for query” controversy.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, had on October 15, complained to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that Ms. Moitra took bribes from a business house to ask questions in Parliament.
The complaint cited a letter from advocate Jai Dehadrai to accuse Ms. Moitra of “breach of privilege, contempt of the house, and criminal offence”.
Ms. Moitra, who is facing an inquiry will appear before the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee on November 2.
Mitra’s counsel told the bench of Justice Sachin Datta that she now seeks permission to file a fresh list of defendants in the case which includes Mr Dubey and advocate Dehadrai.
New list of defendants
The Delhi High Court asked applicant to amend the memo of parties accordingly and posted the matter for December 5.
Denying Mr Dubey’s allegations, Ms. Moitra has approached the Delhi HC. In her plea, the TMC MP has sought an order directing “defendant no. 1 (Mr. Dubey) and 2 (Mr. Dehadrai) to publish a retraction and an apology in three English newspapers, three Hindi newspapers and three Bengali newspapers for the false and defamatory statements/allegations” made against her.
She maintained that Mr. Dehadrai was her close friend until recently when the cessation of this friendship soon took a bitter turn, and he “resorted to sending vile, threatening, vulgar messages to the plaintiff and also trespassed into plaintiff’s official residence and stole some personal possessions of the plaintiff including her pet dog - Henry [the same was returned later]”.
Apart from the BJP leader and advocate Dehadrai, the TMC MP had earlier sued a host of media platforms seeking directions to them to take down allegedly defamatory allegations.
A total of 15 media houses were made party to the suit which included X, Google and YouTube to remove defamatory content against her.
