Mahua Moitra seeks to drop proceedings against media houses

TMC MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday sought permission from the Delhi High Court to delete as parties several media houses from her plea to restrain them from publishing alleged fake and defamatory content against her, following cash-for-query scandal.

Moitra's counsel submitted before a bench of Justice Sachin Datta that the suit would only continue against BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai.

The counsel also submitted that he would not press for any interim relief in the matter at this stage,

Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari for Dubey, referring to an interview by Moitra to TV channels, claimed that she had committed perjury as she admitted that she gave her login credentials to the businessman.

The court directed Moitra's counsel to amend the memo of parties and scheduled the matter for further consideration on December 5.

On October 20, the HC had ticked off senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared for Moitra, after Dehadrai claimed that he had called him up to settle the matter.

He then withdrew himself from the case.

Dehadrai had then claimed Moitra's counsel Sankaranarayanan called him up to persuade him to withdraw the complaint filed with the CBI to get back dog 'Henry'.

The lawyer had claimed he has the phone recording in support of his assertion.

The bench then asked Sankaranarayanan if he was doing the role of mediation then why he should appear for advancing the arguments.

After this, Sankaranarayanan preferred to withdraw himself from the case.

Moitra has approached the High Court seeking to restrain Dubey, advocate Dehadrai, and several social media platforms and media houses from posting, circulating or publishing any "fake and defamatory" content against her.

Moitra found herself at the centre of a political storm after Dubey complained to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on the basis of an affidavit by Dehadrai that she had allegedly taken bribes from a business house led by Darshan Hiranandani to ask over 50 questions in Parliament with regard to Adani group.

Most of the questions were targetted against Adani group of companies allegedly at the instance of the said buisness house.

On October 15, Dubey, cited the letter from Dehadrai,  Moitra's estranged friend, to accuse Moitra of "breach of privilege, contempt of the house, and criminal offence". Moitra has denied those allegations.

Dog 'Henry' is alleged to be reason behind souring of relations between Moitra and Dehadrai.

Earlier, Hiranandani is also reported to have furnished an affidavit stating he had been provided to access to Moitra's Lok Sabha log in details to ask questions, allegedly in exchange of costly gifts and renovation of her house, and travel expenses.

Dubey has also written to Union minister for information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, urging him to investigate the IP addresses of her log-in credentials for the House.

Dubey had claimed that lawyer Dehadrai had "shared irrefutable evidence of bribes exchanged" between her and Darshan Hiranandani.