Jharkhand assembly election 2019: 62% of 79 sitting MLAs have criminal cases, 38 with serious offences

Ranchi: According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Jharkhand Election Watch, 62 per cent or 49 out of 79 sitting MLAs in the outgoing Jharkhand assembly have declared criminal cases lodged against them. Further, 48 per cent (38 out of 79) MLAs have declared serious criminal cases.

The report was released by the ADR after analysing the affidavits of 79 sitting MLAs of 81 members of the assembly, submitted by them prior to the 2014 Assembly elections. Properly scanned and complete documents were not available for two MLAs, so they were excluded from the report, a press release issued by the association said.

The release also said that three MLAs have declared cases related to murder, which is probed under IPC Section 302, while as many as 10 MLAs have declared cases related to attempt to murder, which comes under IPC section 307.

Stating the party-wise division of sitting MLAs with criminal cases, the report revealed that 21 out of 36 MLAs from BJP, 11 out of 18 MLAs from JMM and five out of eight MLAs from Congress have declared charges against themselves.

In terms of serious criminal cases, 15 (42 per cent) out of 36 MLAs from BJP, 10 (56 per cent) out of 18 MLAs from JMM, two (25 per cent) out of 8 MLAs from Congress and 5 (63 per cent) out of 8 MLAs from JVM(P) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

The release further stated that 52 per cent of the MLAs were 'crorepatis'. The average assets per sitting MLA are Rs 1.84 crore. Further, 21 MLAs from the BJP, nine MLAs from JMM, five MLAs from Congress and three MLAs from JVM(P) have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore. 

BJP's Manish Jaishwal of Hazaribagh constituency was declared to be the richest MLA with total assets worth over Rs 18 crore, followed by Devendra Kumar Singh of Congress with total assets worth over Rs 10 crore and Alamgir Alam of Congress with total assets worth over Rs 6 crore.

 "Twenty-eight MLAs have declared their educational qualifications to be between classes 8 and 12, while 63 per cent MLAs declared educational qualification of graduation and above. One MLA has declared that he is just literate," the report said.

Out of 79 MLAs analysed, 10 (13 per cent) MLAs are women.