‘PMO held a gun to Hiranandani’s head, forced him to sign affidavit on white paper in 20 minutes’ – TMC MP Mahua Moitra on Darshan Hiranandani’s affidavit
Sagarika Mitra, Content Head of JAN KI BAAT, breaks down the details of TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s statement after businessman Darshan Hiranandani’s alleged affidavit claimed that she gave him her Parliament login credentials & pressurised him into giving her expensive gifts
At 12.26 am on October 20th, 2023 – TMC Mahua Moitra posted a statement in response to real estate tycoon Darshan Hiranandani’s affidavit against her. The statement accompanied by the caption ‘Jai Ma Durga’ on ‘X’ claimed that her ‘dear friend’ Darshan Hiranandani who as per her is ‘India’s most respected and educated businessman’ was for forced to ‘sign a letter like this on white paper because a gun was put to his head’. She went on to allege that ‘the contents of the letter are a joke. It has clearly been drafted by some half-wit in the PMO who doubles up as a creative writer in the BJP’s IT cell’. It is interesting to note here that Mahua Moitra doesn’t explicitly deny receiving gifts and luxury items from the businessman, nor does she deny the claim that she gave her Parliament login credentials to him to post questions on her behalf against Gautam Adani.
The Trinamool Congress MP whose party leadership is conspicuously silent on this raging scandal, went on to pose 5 questions based after the alleged affidavit by real estate tycoon Darshan Hiranandani was widely reported and debated in the media last night. Here are excerpts from her statement
‘Three days ago (16.10.2023), the Hiranandani Group put out an official press release stating that all charges leveled against them were baseless. Today (19.10.2023) an “approver affidavit” has been leaked to the press. This “affidavit is on a white piece of paper with no letterhead and there is no official origin aside from a press leak. A few questions need to be asked urgently:
1. Darshan Hiranandani has not been summoned by the CBI or the Ethics committee or indeed by any investigative agency yet. Who then has he given this affidavit to?
2. The affidavit is on white paper and not on official letterhead or notarised. Why would one of India’s most respected/ educated businessman sign a letter like this on white paper unless a gun was put to his head to do it?
3. The contents of the letter are a joke. It has clearly been drafted by some half-wit in the PMO who doubles up as a creative writer in the BJP’s IT cell. It sings paeans to Modi and Gautam Adani while linking in every opponent of theirs to me and my alleged corruption. Shardul Shroff is the brother of Cyril Shroff who has had a bitter separation of business from him. Cyril Shroff is Gautam Adani’s “samdhi” and was on the SEBI’s committee in total conflict of interest. Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor are both people the government targets relentlessly. Sucheta Dalal is an investigative journalist who is always exposing the government. Clearly someone said “Sabh ka naam ghusaa do, aisa mauka phir nahi ayega!”
4. For example, Paragraph 12 claims Darshan gave in to my demands because he was fearful of displeasing me. Darshan and his father run one of India’s largest business groups and their recent projects in UP and Gujarat have been Inaugurated by the CM of Uttar Pradesh and by the Prime Minister. Darshan accompanied the PM abroad as part of his business delegation very recently. Why would such a wealthy successful businessman who enjoys direct access to every Minister and the PMO be coerced by a first time Opposition MP into giving her gifts and giving into her demands? It is totally illogical and only cements the truth that this letter was drafted by the PMO and not Darshan.
5. Why has Darshan not done a press conference and read this out or tweeted it himself or his company put it out? If indeed he has “confessed” to this why is he not releasing it officially rather than through back channel leaks? The truth is exceedingly clear’
Mahua Moitra has repeatedly claimed that BJP government is targeting her for raising the Adani issue. In the statement, she once again referred to advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai as her ‘jilted ex with an acrimonious personal history with her’
‘Jai Dehadrai is not some “Supreme Court lawyer” who has done painstaking research on me. He is a jilted ex with an acrimonious personal history with me who wanted to somehow get back at me. If indeed he was witness to all of my corruption why was he with me during the time and why did he wait till now to make it public?’
Mahua Moitra directly dragged in the Prime Minister’s Office into this controversy without an iota of proof and went on to state through her statement
‘The PMO held a proverbial gun to Darshan and his father’s heads and gave them 20 minutes to sign this letter sent to them. They were threatened with a total shut down of all their businesses. His father is in real estate which depends on government licenses. And he is in energy, data centres and semiconductor chip manufacturing which too depends on govemment licenses. He has over 30,000 crore investments in UP alone. They were told they will be finished, the CBI would raid them and all government business would stop and all PSU bank financing would be stopped immediately. The draft of this letter was sent by the PMO and he was forced to sign it. And it was leaked to the press immediately. This is in return for the government not doing a CBI investigation or not aggressively attacking their businesses. Though tragic, it is totally understandable that Darshan (who is a dear friend) would need to think of what is at stake for him here – namely the continuation of his family businesses built up over decades and the fate of thousands of employees – and buckle under pressure and sign this’
None of the above-mentioned claims have either been backed or denied by either Darshan Hiranandani or the Hiranandani Group. PMO is yet to respond to what many are calling ‘wild and baseless’ claims by the Trinamool MP. She further stated in her statement
‘This is part of the establishment’s witch hunt into every political leader who dares question Adani. This is the price to pay for standing up to the BJP and Adani. But they cannot scare me’
Meanwhile, Jai Anant Dehadrai whose complaint to CBI led to the unravelling of the alleged ‘Cash for Query’ scandal made an explosive claim on ‘X’ this morning. He claimed there were attempts made to coerce him to withdraw his complaint to the CBI in exchange for Henry (his pet dog). Yesterday, Dehadrai had written to the Delhi police commissioner claiming that Mahua Moitra had kidnapped his dog was trying to blackmail him. His post on ‘X’ reads
‘An attempt was made yesterday afternoon, to coerce me into withdrawing my cbi complaint and letter to @nishikant_dubey in exchange for Henry.
I flatly refused – will give details to CBI.
Messenger is totally innocent – but tells you everything about her’
Today, Moitra’s defamation suit against BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and Anant Dehadrai, is set to come up for hearing in Delhi High Court. Stay tuned for more updates
SHARE
