Out of 225 RS MPs, 75 face criminal charges: Report

Out of the 225 sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, 75 have declared criminal cases against themselves, with four facing charges of crimes against women, a new report revealed on Friday.

In a report, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) said that it has analysed and updated the criminal background details of 225 out of 233 Rajya Sabha MPs.

It further said that in the current Rajya Sabha, one seat is vacant while three MPs have not been analysed as their affidavits were unavailable and four seats of Jammu and Kashmir were undefined.

“Out of the 225 Rajya Sabha sitting MPs analysed, 75, which is 33 per cent MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves.”

It said that 41, which is 18 per cent of Rajya Sabha sitting MPs have declared serious criminal cases, while two MPs have declared cases related to murder (IPC section 302).

The report further said that four MPs have declared cases related to crimes against women.

“Out of the four MPs, K.C. Venugopal from Rajasthan has declared case related to rape (IPC Section-376),” it said.

The report also pointed out that four sitting MPs have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section 307).

It further said that 23 (which is 27 per cent) out of 85 Rajya Sabha MPs from BJP, 12 (40 per cent) out of 30 from Congress, four (31 per cent) out of 13 from Trinamool Congress, five (83 per cent) out of six from RJD, four (80 per cent) out of five from CPI(M), three (30 per cent) out of 10 from AAP, three (33 per cent) out of nine from YSRCP and two (67 per cent) out of three from the NCP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

The report also said that 12 (14 per cent) out of 85 MPs from BJP, eight (27 per cent) out of 30 from Congress, two (15 per cent) out of 13 from Trinamool Congress, three (50 per cent) out of six from RJD, two (40 per cent) out of five from CPI(M), one (10 per cent) out of 10 MPs from AAP, three (33 per cent) out of nine from YSRCP and one (33 per cent) out of three from NCP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

The report also highlighted that Maharashtra has the maximum number of Rajya Sabha MPs with criminal cases followed by Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

It said that 12 (63 per cent) out of 19 Rajya Sabha MPs from Maharashtra, 10 (63 per cent) out of 16 from Bihar, seven (23 per cent) out of 30 from Uttar Pradesh, six (33 per cent) out of 18 from Tamil Nadu, six (67 per cent) out of nine from Kerala and five (31 per cent) out of 16 from West Bengal have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.