About 31 percent of sitting Rajya Sabha members have declared criminal cases against themselves while the average assets of the Upper House members are Rs 79.54 crore, according to a report released by ADR-National Election Watch.
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch have analysed the criminal, financial and other background details of 226 out of 233 sitting Members of Parliament.
In the current Rajya Sabha, one seat is vacant. Two MPs have not been analysed as their affidavits were unavailable and four seats of Jammu and Kashmir are undefined, the report said.
Of the 226 sitting Rajya Sabha members, 197 (87 percent) are crorepatis’ and the average assets per Rajya Sabha member are Rs 79.54 crore, the report said.
Of 226 Rajya Sabha members, 71 (31 percent) have declared criminal cases against themselves and 37 (16 percent) have declared serious criminal cases.
According to the report, two Rajya Sabha members have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section 302) and four Members of Parliament have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section 307).
Four Rajya Sabha members have declared cases related to crimes against women and out of these four Members of Parliament, one namely K C Venugopal (Congress) from Rajasthan has declared case related to rape (IPC Section 376), the report said.
According to the report, 20 (24 percent) out of 85 Rajya Sabha members from Bharatiya Janata Party, 12 (39 percent) out of 31 Members of Parliament from Congress, three (23 percent) out of 13 from All India Trinamool Congress, five (83 percent) out of six from Rashtriya Janata Dal, four (80 percent) out of five from Communits Party of India (Marxist), three (30 percent) out of 10 from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), three (33 percent) out of nine from Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) and two (50 percent) out of four Rajya Sabha members from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
The report said nine (11 percent) out of 85 Rajya Sabha members from BJP, eight (26 percent) out of 31 MPs from Congress, one (8 percent) out of 13 Rajya Sabha members from AITC, three (50 percent) out of six MPs from RJD, two (40 percent) out of five from CPI (M), one (10 percent) out of 10 from AAP, three (33 percent) out of nine from YSRCP and one (25 percent) out of four Rajya Sabha members from NCP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Giving state-wise details, the report said that seven (23 percent) out of 31 Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh, 12 (63 percent) out of 19 MPs from Maharashtra, six (33 percent) out of 18 from Tamil Nadu, three (19 percent) out of 16 from West Bengal, six (67 percent) out of nine from Kerala and 10 (63 percent) out of 16 Rajya Sabha members from Bihar have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.