42% ministers in Modi-led cabinet declared criminal cases against them: ADR
text_fields
New Delhi: A staggering report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has revealed that at least 42 per (33) cent of the total 78 ministers in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led cabinet have declared criminal cases against them with four having cases related to attempt to murder.
As per the report by the poll rights group, four ministers among these 33 -- John Barla, Nitish Pramanik, Pankaj Choudhary, V Muraleedharan -- have cases related to murder attempts. Around 31% (24) have declared serious criminal cases, including murder, robbery etc.
Further, seven ministers have declared cases related to the electoral violation.
As many as 43 MPs took oath as ministers earlier this week in the first major cabinet reshuffle of the second term of the Modi government. Fifteen new cabinet ministers and 28 ministers of state were sworn, taking the strength of the council of ministers to 78, the Live Mint reported.
Of all the ministers analysed, 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 an attempt to murder (IPC Section-307). They are -- John Barla, Pramanik, Pankaj Choudhary and V Muraleedharan.
Further, 90% (70) of the new ministers are crorepatis and have declared total assets amounting to over ₹1 crore.
Among them, four ministers -- Jyotiraditya Scindia (over ₹379 crores), Piyush Goyal (over ₹95 crores), Narayan Rane (over ₹87 crores), and Rajeev Chandrasekhar (over ₹64 crores) -- have been categorised as 'high asset ministers', which means they have declared assets worth more than ₹50 crores.
The average worth of assets per minister has been found to be around ₹16.24 crore.
As per the report, the cabinet ministers who have declared assets worth the lowest in the lot are -- Pratima Bhoumik from Tripura (over ₹6 lakh), John Barla from West Bengal (over ₹14 lakh), Kailash Choudhary from Rajasthan (over ₹24 lakh), Bishweswar Tudu from Odisha (over ₹27 lakh), and V Muraleedharan from Maharashtra (over ₹27 lakh).
