43% newly-elected Lok Sabha MPs have criminal cases against them: ADR

According to the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), 43% newly-elected Lok Sabha members have criminal charges against them, which is 26% more than the previous Lok Sabha.

The ADR analysed the affidavits of 539 winning candidates and found that as many as 233 MPs or 43% have criminal charges. The BJP has 116 MPs or 39% of its winning candidates with criminal cases, while the Congress has 29 MPs (57%) with criminal cases. The ADR report showed that 13 (81%) MPs from the JDU, 10 (43%) from the DMK and nine (41%) from the TMC, have criminal cases against them.

According to ADR, in 2014, 185 (345) MPs had criminal charges and 112 MPs had serious criminal cases against them. In 2009, 162 (nearly 30%) out of the 543 Lok Sabha MPs had criminal charges and 14% had serious criminal charges.

In the new Lok Sabha, nearly 29% of the cases are related to rape, murder, attempt to murder or crime against women. “There is an increase of 109% [in 2019] in the number of MPs with declared serious criminal cases since 2009,” it said.

The ADR report also revealed that eleven MPs - five from the BJP, two from the BSP, one each from the Congress, the NCP and the YSR Congress Party, and an Independent — have murder charges against them.

Congress' Dean Kuriakose, who won from the Idukki constituency in Kerala, has 204 criminal cases against him. The cases include culpable homicide, house trespass, robbery, criminal intimidation, it added.