Shardul and Pallavi Shroff of law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas have termed the allegations — of supporting Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra in “attacking Gautam Adani” to “malign and embarrass” Prime Minister Narendra Modi — levelled against them by Darshan Hiranandani, CEO of the Hiranandani Group, as “baseless” and “malicious”.
Moitra has been at the centre of a political storm after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey accused the Lok Sabha member from West Bengal’s Krishnanagar of allegedly accepting bribes from Hiranandi to ask questions in Parliament.
In a three-page affidavit submitted to the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha, Hiranandani claimed that Moitra, in her attempts to attack Adani, was receiving help from other people, including Shardul, Pallavi Shroff and Dalal, who were also in touch with her, and “were feeding her with all kinds of unverified information relating to Adani and his companies”.
He claimed that Moitra provided him with her Parliament login and password so that he could ‘post the question’ directly ‘on her behalf’ when required.
Shardul is the Executive Chairman and Pallavi is the Managing Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas.
Terming Hiranandani’s statements as baseless and malicious insinuations, the Shroffs told The Indian Express that the TMC MP has never asked for any help from them to help or facilitate her to attack and harm the Adani family or the Prime Minister.
“…totally shocked to read what Darshan Hiranandani has written about us. What he has written is a completely reckless character assassination and there is no iota of truth in his statements,” Shardul and Pallavi said in response to a query sent by The Indian Express.
“We have the highest respect for our Prime Minister as a great achiever and doer of so many welfare projects and executing necessary and major infrastructure works in India. We are grateful citizens respectful of his poverty alleviation efforts. We would never support any campaign to denigrate or demean our Prime Minister,” they said.
Journalist Sucheta Dalal, Managing Editor of MoneyLife, also reacted to Darshan Hiranandani’s allegations in a post on X, “This is completely stupefying — I do not know @MahuaMoitra personally at all – I may have retweeted some of her stuff. I don’t know Pallavi Shroff and I used to know #ShardulShroff long ago. I dare anyone to find any links between me and them. Requesting IT minister @Rajeev_GoI to help me get to the bottom of it @AshwiniVaishnaw also please help. This is one time the govt ought to help prevent this kind of slander by some crooks!!”
In another tweet, Dalal said, “…I don’t know Mahua Moitra – and I think she can confirm it. The question of helping her simply does not arise, NOR did she EVER reach out and ask for any help either!”
Meanwhile, Moitra on Friday said she is ready to answer questions from the CBI and the Parliament’s Ethics Committee if she is called in connection with the allegations.
“I welcome answering questions to CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and Ethics Committee (which has absolute majority of BJP members) if and when they call me. I have neither time nor interest to feed a Adani-directed media circus trial or answer BJP trolls,” Moitra said on X.
“I am enjoying Durga Puja in Nadia. Shubho Sashthi,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader said.