40 Per Cent Sitting MPs Have Criminal Cases, 25 Per Cent Serious Criminal Cases: ADR

New Delhi: About 40 per cent of sitting MPs have criminal cases registered against them out of which 25 per cent have declared serious criminal cases under charges of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and crimes against women, according to poll rights body ADR. The average worth of assets per MP from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is Rs 38.33 crores and 53 (seven per cent) are billionaires, the ADR said.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 763 sitting MPs out of 776 seats of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. This data has been extracted from affidavits filed by the MPs prior to contesting their last elections and any subsequent by-elections. Four seats of Lok Sabha and one seat of Rajya Sabha are vacant and four Rajya Sabha seats of Jammu and Kashmir are undefined.

The affidavits of one Lok Sabha MP and three Rajya Sabha MPs could not be analysed as these documents were not available. Out of the 763 sitting MPs analysed, 306 (40 per cent) sitting MPs have declared criminal cases against them and 194 (25 per cent) sitting MPs have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women, etc, it said.