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Northeast Now
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The number of MLAs having criminal cases against them has doubled in Assam since 2006. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Assam Election Watch have revealed this.

At present, 13 per cent MLAs in the State have declared criminal cases, compared to six per cent such MLAs in 2006.

The Assam Legislative Assembly in 2006 had seven MLAs with criminal records which increased two-fold to 15 MLAs in the Assembly formed in the year 2016 and byelections conducted thereafter.

Similarly, the number of MLAs with serious criminal cases also increased to 11 at present from five in 2006.

The Election Watch and ADR analysed the criminal, financial and other details of 119 of the 126 MLAs.

This analysis of criminal cases, released on Monday, is based on the affidavit submitted by the candidates prior to the 2016 Assembly elections and byelections conducted thereafter.

Fifteen of the 119 MLAs analysed have declared criminal cases against them and 11 of them have declared serious criminal cases against them.

Moreover, three MLAs have declared cases related to murder, whereas one MLA has declared a case related to attempt to murder.

A party-wise analysis of sitting MLAs suggests that seven of 59 MLAs from BJP, five of 20 MLAs from Congress, two of 14 MLAs from AIUDF and one Independent MLA have declared criminal cases against them in their affidavits.

Six BJP MLAs, three Congress MLAs and two AIUDF MLAs have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Serious criminal cases are those offences that are non-bailable, for which punishment is five years or more in jail, besides electoral offences like bribery or offences related to assault, murder, kidnap, rape, etc.

The names of BJP MLAs Aminul Haque Laskar, Kushal Dowari, Shiladitya Dev, Naba Kumar Doley, Rama Kanta Dewri, Narayan Deka, Dipak Kumar Rabha have appeared in the list.

Similarly, AIUDF MLAs Ananta Kumar Malo, Rafiqul Islam and Congress MLAs Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, Debabrata Saikia, Abul Kalam Rasheed Alam, Nurul Huda, Jamaluddin Ahmed and Independent MLA Bhubon Pegu have figured in the list.