After the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate Tuesday filed a money laundering case to probe cash-for-query charges against TMC leader Mahua Moitra.
The TMC -- on finding its leaders like Moitra who has been re-nominated to contest polls from Krishnagar ever after getting expelled from Lok Sabha on raising questions in the House in lieu of illegal gratification -- rushed to the Election Commission to immediately restrain central agencies from taking action against its party and other opposition leaders.
A delegation of the TMC leaders met the Commission officials and sought level playing field in the 2024 general elections. “Yesterday every single opposition party agreed and a resolution was passed (at INDIA bloc rally) that there is unprecedented and biased action by central agencies. We have seen a surge in actions by central agencies,” TMC MP Saket Gokhale, who was part of the delegation, said after the meeting.
This is the second case against Moitra as she did not appear before the ED which had issued third summons to her in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) investigation.
Mahua Moitra’s premises was searched by the CBI on Saturday in the cash-for-query case which it registered on the directions of anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal. A parliamentary ethics committee had found her conduct “unethical” and in “contempt” of the House, owing to charges that she took gifts and other benefits to raise questions in the Lok Sabha to target Adanis and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, she said on Tuesday that her vistory from Krishnagar would be a befitting response to the conspiracy to expell her from parliament last December.
She alleged the Election Commission has “lost its independence” as Commissioners are handpicked by a selection committee dominated by the Centre which has two-thirds majority.