NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has filed money laundering case against Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from Lok Sabha last year over cash-for-query allegations, news agency ANI reported quoting sources. A probe report by Parliamentary Ethics Committee had held Moitra accountable for accepting gifts and illegal gratification for asking questions in Lok Sabha.The Trinamool leader had dubbed her expulsion recommendation by the Ethics committee as a “prefixed match by a kangaroo court.”The CBI had recently conducted searches at Moitra’s residences and other places in Kolkata in connection with the allegations. This came after the Lokpal ordered the CBI to investigate all aspects of the allegations made against Moitra in the ‘cash for query’ case.Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has firmly backed Moitra, has alleged that she was thrown out of Lok Sabha because she used to speak against the BJP.”Have you seen what they (BJP) did with Mahua (Moitra)? She has been thrown out of the Lok Sabha because she used to talk loudly (in Parliament). She used to speak against the BJP,” the chief minister said recently at a public meeting at Nadia.Moitra has been re-nominated by the TMC from the Krishnanagar seat, which she won in 2019 by a margin of over 60,000 votes. She feels that her victory would be a fitting response to the “ploy” to expel her from Lok Sabha last year and harass her through raids and summons by central agencies in a cash-for-query case.”There is no doubt about my victory. It is about how big the margin will be, which will be decided on June 4. I live here and have been among my people for the past five years and even before that as an MLA. So, there is a very strong connection, and frankly, there is no election mode as such here,” she said.The Trinamool leader said the Election Commission has “lost its independence” since commissioners are handpicked by a selection committee where the Centre has a two-thirds majority.(With inputs from agencies)
