On 2nd January, the information about the second complaint filed by Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai against Trinamool Congress leader and expelled Lok Sabha MP, Mahua Moitra came to the fore. In his complaint, Dehadrai accused Moitra of snooping on him by misusing her position as an MP and using the Bengal police. His assertions that Moitra was snooping on him were based on the alleged history of TMC leader snooping on her ex-partner and a German national working with Chinese company Byte Dance (owner of TikTok app).
In the complaint, three names stood out: one was of Caravan Magazine’s editor and Editor’s Guild’s President Anant Nath, and the second was of top lawyer Suhaan Mukerji, apparently Moitra’s ex-partner. The third name was Helena Lersch, the German national working with Byte Dance. Details about Anant Nath can be read here.
Mahua Moitra, Suhaan Mukerji and German ‘woh’
In his complaint, Dehadrai alleged that Moitra used her MP status to snoop on her alleged ex-partner, Suhaan Mukerji. He claimed that Moitra utilised her connections with the senior officials in the West Bengal police to actively track Mukerji’s whereabouts in 2019. He further alleged that Moitra informed him about the snooping orally and via WhatsApp messages in September 2019. She claimed Mukerji was involved with a German woman identified as Helena Lersch.
Dehadrai alleged that Moitra accessed Mukerji’s phone’s complete call records. It included detailed information about everyone who had contacted Mukerji. Furthermore, Moitra allegedly had information on Mukerji’s precise physical locations all the time. In short, Moitra allegedly utilised her influence and connections to conduct surveillance on Mukerji and tracked his movements and communications.
Who is Suhaan Mukerji?
Suhaan Mukerji is the founding partner of PLR Chambers, a firm that specialises in India’s public policy and regulatory affairs. As per his profile in Law Asia, Suhaan has extensive experience in crisis management, policy formulation, drafting and monitoring legislative agendas. He has served as an advisor to the government on policy and legislative reforms at the federal and state levels.
Furthermore, Suhaan served on several government and industry committees and appeared as an expert witness for parliamentary standing committees. He was on Legislative drafting assignments, including Amendments to the IT Act, the Major Port Bill, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways – Road Transport and Safety Bill, the Inland Waterways Authority – PPP framework, the Tourism Bill and more. Mukerji is well known in the political circle on both federal and state levels.
Timeline of Moitra-Mukerji connection
Mahua Moitra’s connection to Suhaan Mukerji indirectly came to the fore in May 2023 when a person named Shravan Kumar Yadav filed a complaint against Moitra with the Election Commission. In his complaint, Yadav accused Moitra of failing to disclose her 4,900 shares in Villerville Financial Advisors Ltd. in her election affidavit for 2019. As per reports, her declaration of nil in the section for details of investment in bonds, debentures, shares, and units in companies/mutual funds was in conflict, as stated in the complaint, with the business’s annual reports submitted from 2010 to 2022. There was a lengthy discussion on the connection between the two on the Legally India portal which can be seen here.
According to Villerville Financial Advisors Ltd data, she was the company’s director from January 2010 to March 2016. Interestingly. Suhaan Mukerji has been listed as a director of Villerville Financial Advisors Ltd since 14th July 2009. Apart from Suhaan, his father, Swaroop Mukerji, a well-known painter, is also a director at the company.
Suhaan has also been associated with Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co (AMSS) since 2002. Before AMSS, he was an analyst with the World Bank. AMSS was dissolved in 2015, and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas came into existence from it, founded by Cyril Shroff. AMSS was founded by Cyril’s grandfather, Amarchand Shroff, in 1917, and his father, Suresh Amarchand Shroff, was a managing partner in the company.
In 2010, two notable things happened. First, Mahua Moitra said goodbye to Congress that she had joined in 2009 to join Trinamool Congress. Second, she joined Villerville as director.
In May 2012, Suhaan was appointed as Adviser to Sam Pitroda, Office of Adviser to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations (PIII). In June 2013, he left his position at AMSS to concentrate on his advisor’s post at the PMO. A few months later, in November 2013, he set up Policy, Law and Regulation Chambers or PLR Chambers and continued to be an expert advisor to Pitroda’s office at PMO. According to the Legally India report, PLR Chambers was established to offer clients and NGOs legal, public policy, and legitimate lobbying services. While serving as PMO, Suhaan started a firm to provide lobbying services to NGOs.
As mentioned before, Moitra served as director of Suhaan’s company till March 2016. In May 2016, she submitted an abstract statement of her election expenses in which Suhaan was mentioned as her election agent. As per the Election Commission of India, every candidate is entitled to appoint an election agent who plays a crucial role in the elections. They can attend nomination scrutiny, submit withdrawal notices, appoint polling and counting agents, and revoke these appointments. Furthermore, election agents maintain the election expense account. It is safe to say Suhaan was a trustworthy person for Moitra.
Though there were differences between Moitra and Suhaan, as suggested in the complaint of Dehadrai, Suhaan continued to work for the West Bengal government under the Trinamool Congress. He served as the Standing Counsel of West Bengal and defended Abhishek Banerjee in Bengal Coal Scam.
Who is Helena Lersch?
Helena Lersch is Vice President of Public Policy Emerging Markets and Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, since July 2021. Earlier, she was director of Global Public Policy at ByteDance from October 2018 to August 2021, the period when Moitra allegedly stalked her and Suhaan, claiming they had an affair.
Lersch worked with tech giants such as Instagram and Google. She earned her BSc in Economics from the University of Hong Kong and BA in European Studies from Maastricht University, followed by an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Mahuagate: Dehadrai’s complaint against Mahua on ‘cash for query’
On 14th October, the Indian political scene experienced a major tremor as BJP MP Nishkant Dubey wrote to the ethics committee seeking an inquiry against TMC MP Mahua Moitra in the ‘Cash for Query’ matter. He based his complaint on the letter written by Supreme Court lawyer Anant Dehadrai, who alleged that most of the questions asked by the TMC MP in Lok Sabha directly or indirectly benefit businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
Notably, Moitra has accepted that she had shared credentials with Darshan Hiranandani. Following this development, it was recently reported that PAs of Lok Sabha MPs have lost access to Digital Sansad login.
Meanwhile, it was also reported earlier that Darshan Hiranandani, an accused in this alleged scam, turned approver and accepted the allegations. In his affidavit, he said that Moitra gave him her Parliament username and password so he could post questions on her behalf. As reported earlier, the IT ministry had stated that it had sent a report to the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee confirming that the TMC leader’s parliamentary ID was accessed 49 times from Dubai. As reported earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) initiated an inquiry against the TMC MP.
As a result of the allegations, Moitra was expelled from Lok Sabha on 8th December 2023.