In the new Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet, 19 ministers have declared serious criminal cases, including cases related to attempt to murder and crimes against women, according to ADR report.
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 71 ministers out of 72 ministers including Prime Minister from Lok Sabha Elections 2024 and current Rajya Sabha.
Out of the 71 ministers analysed, 28 (39 per cent) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, while two ministers have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section 307) against themselves.
The two ministers are BJP leaders Shantanu Thakur and Sukanta Majumdar from West Bengal’s Bangaon (SC) and Balurghat constituencies respectively. While Thakur has 23 cases filed against him, Majumdar has 16.
Nineteen ministers have declared serious crimincal cases against them. The criteria for serious criminal cases are offence for which maximum punishment is of 5 years or more; non-bailable offence, electoral offence (for eg. IPC 171E or bribery), offence related to loss to exchequer; assault, murder, kidnap, rape related offence, crimes against women, corruption cases, among others.
The five ministers who have cases related to crimes against women are: Bandi Sanjay Kumar from BJP leader Karimnagar constituency, Shantanu Thakur, Sukanta Majumdar, Suresh Gopi from Kerala’s Thrissur, Jual Oram from Odisha’s Sundargarh seat.
Eight ministers in the Modi 3.0 Cabinet have declared cases related to hate speech against themselves.
After coming to power for a third consecutive term in the 18th Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi assigned portfolios to his 71 Council of ministers.