New Delhi: Six of the newly sworn-in ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government have assets exceeding Rs 100 crore, according to a report put together by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) along with National Election Watch.
As per the report, 28 ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves in their election affidavits, with 19 accused of serious crimes under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including crimes against women. Furthermore, two BJP MPs from West Bengal are facing murder charges.
The report is based on the self-sworn affidavits of 71 of the 72 ministers sworn in on Sunday (June 9). The details of George Kurien were not analysed as he is not currently a member of either house and has not contested the Lok Sabha election, ADR said in a statement.
Ministers accused of crimes against women include Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Shantanu Thakur, Sukanta Majumdar, Suresh Gopi and Jual Oram, all from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Eight ministers have been accused of hate speech. They include: Amit Shah, Shobha Karandlaje, Dharmendra Pradhan, Giriraj Singh, Nityanand Rai, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Shantanu Thakur and Sukanta Majumdar.
According to the report, 70 of the 71 ministers are ‘crorepatis‘ or have assets worth at least Rs 1 crore. Six with the highest declared wealth include: Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani at Rs 5,705 crore, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia at Rs 424 crore, H.D. Kumaraswamy at Rs 217 crore, Ashwini Vaishnaw at Rs 144 crore, Rao Inderjit Singh with Rs 121 crore and Piyush Goyal with Rs 110 crore.
Criminal cases
Non bailable offences; offences with a maximum punishment of five years or more; electoral offences; offence related to loss to exchequer, those related with assault, murder, rape or kidnapping; crimes against women and offences mentioned in the Representation of the People Act (Section8) have been categories as serious offences in the report.
Bandi Kumar Sanjay, Minister of State for Home Affairs, has 42 cases against him with at least 30 ‘serious charges’ while Shantanu Thakur, junior minister for ports, shipping and waterways, has 23 cases and 37 serious charges. Minister of State for education, Sukanta Majumdar, has 16 cases with 30 serious charges.