ADR Says 42% Cabinet Ministers Declared Criminal Cases Against Them
Image Courtesy: The Indian Express
New Delhi, July 9: Of the 78 ministers in the Union Cabinet, 42% have declared criminal cases against them with four having cases related to attempt to murder, a report by poll rights group ADR said.
As many as 15 new cabinet ministers and 28 ministers of state were sworn in on Wednesday, taking the strength of the council of ministers to 78.
Of all the ministers analysed, 33 (42%) have declared criminal cases against themselves, said the Association for Democratic Reforms report citing their poll affidavits.
A total of 24 – 31% – ministers have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, robbery etc.
Nisith Pramanik from Cooch Behar constituency who has been appointed as the Minister of State for Home Affairs has declared a case related to murder (IPC Section-302) against himself. At 35, he is also the youngest minister in the Cabinet.
Four ministers have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section-307). They are - John Barla, Pramanik, Pankaj Choudhary and V. Muraleedharan
Out of the ministers analysed, 70 (90%) are crorepatis and the average assets per minister is Rs.16.24 crore.
Four ministers have declared more than Rs 50 crore worth of assets. They are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Piyush Goyal, Narayan Tatu Rane and Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
The ADR report also analysed the educational qualifications of the Cabinet ministers, mentioning that 12 of them – about 15% – of the ministers had declared that they had studied uptil between classes eight and 12 while 64 (about 82%) were graduates and above. Two ministers are diploma holders, 21 are post-graduates while nine were doctorates.
Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
