CBI searches former TMC MP Mahua Moitra's premises, officials say

New Delhi/Kolkata, Mar 23 (PTI) CBI teams on Saturday conducted searches on the premises of former TMC MP Mahua Moitra in multiple locations, including Kolkata, in connection with the alleged cash-for-query case, officials said.

CBI sleuths carried out the searches at Moitra's residence in Kolkata and her apartment in Krishnanagar in West Bengal's Nadia district. She represented the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat.

CBI officers, accompanied by a huge team of central forces, raided an apartment in Alipore area in the southern part of the city where Moitra's father Dipendra Lal Moitra has been residing for several years.

Searches were also being carried out in another apartment used by Moitra in Krishnanagar, they said.

The searches, which began early on Saturday, were underway.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR against the former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP on Thursday on the directives of the Lokpal, which has instructed the agency to file a report within six months, they said.

Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December for "unethical conduct".

The former MP has challenged her expulsion in the Supreme Court and will again be in the hustings during the upcoming general elections as a TMC candidate from the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal.

The Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman, issued the directions to the CBI after receiving the findings of its preliminary inquiry into allegations made against Moitra by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.

Dubey, a Lok Sabha member, alleged that Moitra had asked questions in the House in exchange for cash and gifts from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani to mount an attack on industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others. PTI