More than 40% of India’s MPs facing criminal charges: Group
NEW DELHI: More than 40 per cent of lawmakers in India's new Parliament face criminal charges - some as serious as murder and rape - and the list is growing, an electoral reform group said on Saturday.
One MP for the opposition Congress party is battling 204 cases including manslaughter and robbery, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.
At least 233 of the 543 members named as winning seats last Thursday face criminal proceedings, said ADR, whose election chief Anil Verma said there is a "disturbing trend" in Parliament that "is bad for the democracy".
The ADR said it studied the records of 539 of the winners and found the number facing criminal cases was the highest since it started studies in 2004.
The report said 116 of the 303 lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) landslide win face charges, including one for terrorism.
Twenty-nine of the 52 Congress MPs face cases. Dean Kuriakose from Idukki, in Kerala state, faces 204 criminal cases.
ADR said the number of lawmakers facing grave criminal cases had more than doubled in a decade - with 11 murder cases, 30 manslaughter charges and three accused of rape.
Hindu nationalist nun Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, a newly elected BJP MP, faces a terrorism charge over a 2008 attack near a mosque that killed six people. She denies the charges and says she was framed by a previous Congress government.
Parties often brush off charges against their candidates by saying they were victims of political vendettas.
The ADR campaigns to bring accountability into Indian politics and successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to make candidates file their educational, financial and criminal records.
Mr Verma said the political class sought to avoid reform.
But he added: "We will continue to legally fight this menace and demand that courts bar candidates facing criminal charges." - AFP
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