New Delhi/IBNS: The Delhi High Court has said Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra has every right to defend herself in public if allegations are also levelled against her in public domain, in connection with the pot-boiling "cash-for-query" allegations brought against the 49-year-old fiery politician media reports said.

The court said this in response to Moitra's estranged partner Jai Anant Dehadrai's filing of a plea seeking to stop the expelled Lok Sabha MP, who is again contesting from West Bengal's Krishnanagar in the Lok Sabha polls, from making "defamatory" statements against him.

"If you put the allegations in the public domain, she has every right to defend herself. Except that she cannot make any objectively false statements," Justice Prateek Jalan said as quoted by NDTV.

Dehadrai, a lawyer, has sought Rs. 2 crore as damages for Moitra's "defamatory" statements against him.

Brief about the case

The controversy was triggered after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey on October 15, 2023 accused Moitra, who is known for her fiery speeches in Parliament, of asking questions on businessman Gautam Adani in Parliament in exchange for money.

Moitra, whose choice of words had triggered rows both inside and outside Parliament in the past, has been accused of accepting bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani and sharing her Parliament login details.

Dubey, a three term MP from Jharkhand's Godda constituency, even cited a letter from Moitra's estranged partner Jai Anant Dehadrai, a Supreme Court lawyer, in claiming that Moitra received bribes.

In several interviews, Moitra, who was expelled by the Lok Sabha on the report of the Ethics Committee, claimed she received a few gifts from Darshan but no money and shared the login details to put her questions on the portal only but she used to receive the OTP on her phone.