65% of sitting MLAs in Kerala have criminal cases against them

According to an assessment by the Association for Democratic Reforms and Kerala Election Watch, seventy-five percent of the current state legislatures have criminal cases against them.

Civil society organizations analyzed the self-affidavits of 132 out of 140 elected members submitted before the 2016 elections and found that 86 were facing criminal cases, while 21% of legislators had ‘serious’ criminal cases against them. Were declared.

Criteria for ‘serious’ criminal cases include offenses for which the maximum sentence is five years or more, non-bailable cases, electoral malfunctions, damage to the exchequer, assault, murder, kidnapping, rape, cases under the Representation of the People Act. (Section 8)), Prevention of Corruption Act and Crimes against Women. Two members had cases related to attempt to murder, while one declared cases in relation to crimes against women.

In the party-wise analysis, CPI-M had criminal cases against 51 MLAs (91%), while for others, the same figure included CPI (12 or 63%), Congress (9 or 45%), Indian Union Muslim League. (5 or 28%) and independents (4). The party-wise figures of MLAS with serious criminal cases include CPI (M) 18, CPI 3, Congress 5 and IUML 2.

Violent incidents

Many legislators had to face cases lodged under the provisions of Kerala Prevention of Damage for Private Property and Payment of Compassion Ordinance 2019, while the participants in the protests turned violent. Among the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, some common clauses include 452 (house-trespass after preparation for injury, assault or wrongful restraint) and 147, 148, 149 (relating to rioting-offenses).

All parties including Janata Dal (Secular), Kerala Congress (B), Kerala Congress (Jacob), Nationalist Congress Party and Congress (Secular) had one MLA each who faced criminal cases.

The number of legislators with criminal cases against them increased from 47% in 2011 to 65% in 2016. Nine of the 126 members, whose self-affidavits were analyzed, faced criminal cases in 2011. Of these, 11 were criminal. Cases falling in the category of ‘serious’ crime against him.