Nishikant Dubey and Jai Dehadrai tell Delhi High Court they will take down posts about Mahua Moitra

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai told the Delhi High Court on Friday that they will take down the social media posts against Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra. .Moitra moved the Court over a defamatory Facebook post made by Dubey and a screenshot of the post tweeted by Dehadrai on X (formerly known as Twitter). .Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora today noted that Dubey had taken down the post, and Dehadrai, appearing in person, agreed to delete the tweet."In light of the fact that defendant No. 1 has already removed the another post from Facebook and that defendant No. 2 has undertaken to remove the impugned post from ‘X’, the relief sought in this application does not survive for consideration," the Court stated. Based on the submissions made, the Court disposed of the plea. .Earlier, Advocate Samudra Sarangi appearing for Moitra submitted that the posts are defamatory, baseless and made without justification. Senior Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari appeared for Dubey and claimed that the post was based on an order of the Lokpal regarding an enquiry conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over Moitra’s alleged foreign bank accounts."Lokpal has issued a detailed judgment. Everything I said is exactly taken from there in the tweet. CBI enquiry was done. The allegations are damning. There is wrongdoing which is what I have said in the post," he submitted. .However, the said that prima facie the allegations made in the social media posts by Dubey and Dehadrai were not supported by the Lokpal judgment relied upon by them. Hence, the Court urged Dubey and Dehadrai to take down the posts. “Prima facie this document does not support your allegations. Until then you please deactivate this,” the Court stated during one of the previous hearings.The counsel for Dubey had also referred to a certain letter which formed the basis for the posts. However, the Court noted that the counsel was not able to disclose the particulars of this letter..Dubey claimed that he was provoked by Moitra repeatedly referring to him with a derogatory name, 'Pitbull'. The Court asked Sarangi to talk to Moitra regarding the same. Sarangi on instructions of Moitra stated that the term 'Pitbull' does not refer to Dubey. "Considering that the plaintiff has categorically disowned the said comment of pitbull qua defendant no. 1, no directions are required to be issued," the Court stated. .The fresh application came to be filed by Moitra in her already pending defamation case against Dubey and Dehadrai. The two had alleged that Moitra asked questions in parliament and shared her parliament account login credentials with industrialist Darshan Hiranandani in return for favours and expensive gifts.Based on these allegations, the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee had suggested Moitra’s removal from the lower house, following which she was expelled from the parliament on December 8, 2023.Moitra rebuffed the allegations saying that that Hiranandani is her friend and there has been no quid pro quo. She said that allegations are part of political vendetta.On the other hand, Dehadrai and Dubey claimed that Moitra gave complete access to her online Lok Sabha account to Hiranandani who used the same to post parliamentary questions of his liking.50 of the 61 questions Moitra asked in parliament were by Hiranandani, it was alleged..Advocates Samudra Sarangi, Saloni Jain, Panya Gupta and Akash Jaini appeared for Moitra.Senior Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari, with Advocates Rishi K Awasthi, Roohe Hina Dua, Shreya Arora and Avinash Ankit appeared for Dubey.Defendant no. 2, Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai appeared in person.