Out of the 763 members of India’s Parliament, 306 – about 40 per cent – have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to the latest report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW).
The data was extracted from affidavits filed by the MPs before contesting their last elections.
Around 194 (25 per cent) MPs have declared serious criminal cases, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and crimes against women.
Kerala (73 per cent) topped the chart of MPs who declared criminal cases in their self-sworn affidavits, followed by Bihar, Maharashtra and Telangana.
Bihar (50 per cent) has the highest percentage of MPs with serious criminal cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh (37 per cent), Maharashtra (34 per cent), Kerala (10 per cent) and Telangana (9 per cent).
Among those who have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits are 139 of the 385 MPs (36.10 per cent) of the Bharatiya Janata Party and 43 of the 81 MPs (53.08 per cent) from the Congress.
Fourteen MPs from the Trinamool Congress, 13 from the YSR Congress Party, six from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), five from Rashtriya Janata Dal and three each from the Aam Aadmi Party and Nationalist Congress Party have declared criminal cases against them.
Eleven MPs declared cases related to murder, 32 declared cases of attempt to murder, while 21 declared cases related to crimes against women. Four MPs declared cases related to rape.
The report also found that the average worth of assets of each MP from both the houses is Rs38.33 crore ($6 million). In comparison, legislators who have declared criminal cases against them have average assets amounting to Rs50.03 crore.
Among 53 billionaire MPs, seven from Telangana, nine from Andhra Pradesh, two from Delhi, four from Punjab, one from Uttarakhand, six from Maharashtra and three from Karnataka have declared assets worth more than Rs 100 crore.
Four seats in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha are vacant, and four Rajya Sabha seats of J&K are undefined. The affidavits of one Lok Sabha MP and three Rajya Sabha MPs were not analysed as they were unavailable.
Indo-Asian News Service
