New Delhi, 27 March

Enforcement Directorate has issued fresh summons to TMC leader Mahua Moitra and Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani for questioning in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) contravention case on 28 March, official sources said on Wednesday.

The 49-year-old Trinamool Congress leader was called for questioning twice earlier by the central agency but she did not depose citing official work and sought deferment of the notice. Moitra and Hiranandani have been asked to appear for questioning at the ED office here on Thursday, the sources said.

Hiranandani was also summoned by the agency in a separate FEMA case against his Mumbai-based realty group. Earlier, his father Niranjan Hiranandani had deposed before the ED in Mumbai. In the current case, the sources said, an advocate allegedly linked to Moitra was examined by the ED on Wednesday at its office here.

Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December for "unethical conduct", has been renominated by her party from West Bengal's Krishnanagar seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had raided her premises in connection with the cash-for-query case on Saturday, days after anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal directed the federal agency to investigate the allegations levelled against her by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey.

Dubey, a Lok Sabha member, has alleged that Moitra asked questions in the House in exchange for cash and gifts from Hiranandani to mount an attack on industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others. Transactions linked to a non-resident external (NRE) account are under the ED's scanner, apart from a few other foreign remittances and fund transfers, the sources said.

Moitra has denied any wrongdoing and claims that she is being targeted as she raised questions about deals of the Adani Group.