TMC MP's lawyer opts out of defamation case

A case involving serious allegations of parliamentary impropriety and corruption was on Friday reduced to a custodial battle over a pet Rottweiler named Henry after lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai told the Delhi high court that Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra’s lawyer tried to convince him to withdraw his complaint against the politician in exchange for the dog.

- Shruti Kakkar

During a brief hearing on Friday, Dehadrai -- whose letter formed the basis of Bharatiya Janata Party member Nishikant Dubey’s complaint to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla -- told the court that Moitra’s counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan called him on Thursday to try and convince him to take back his complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Dehadrai had alleged that Moitra accepted money and favours to ask questions in Parliament, a charge the Trinamool Congress politician has denied.

His statement prompted the court to say it was appalled and questioned senior advocate Sankaranarayanan’s eligibility to appear for the member in her defamation suit filed against Dubey and Dehadrai.

“I’m really appalled. You are one person who I expect to maintain the highest professional standard. The fact that you have been in touch with defendant No 2 (Jai) on aspects touching this matter? So you tried to play the role of a mediator? Are you even eligible to appear? This is the question that you need to answer to yourself,” justice Sachin Datta said.

Sankaranarayanan subsequently withdrew from the case.

He later said “because Jai (Dehadrai) instructed me in a case, I had reached out to him yesterday and had asked him is there any way of exploring a settlement. Jai had said that he will get back to me, but he didn’t. Today when I appeared, Jai personally said to me he had an objection to me appearing. I immediately withdrew and said that I don’t want to do this case.”