Seventy-one of the 165 MPs who have been re-elected to the 16th Lok Sabha have criminal cases against them, with 13 of them having registered a rise over the last five years in the number of cases in which they are named. Interestingly, of the said 71 MPs, 21 (30 per cent) have declared criminal cases in 2014 although they had declared zero criminal cases in 2009. According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 71 (or 43 per cent of 165) of the re-elected MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves in 2014. Of these 71 MPs, 13 (18 per cent) have, in their affidavits filed for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, shown an increase over 2009 in the number of cases against themselves. Also, nine of the re-elected MPs have declared zero criminal cases against them in 2014 although they had declared such cases against themselves in 2009. Dr Ramshankar Katheria, the BJP MP from Agra, has seen the highest rise in criminal cases against a re-elected MP with 21 such cases mentioned in his 2014 affidavit as against zero cases in 2009, the report said. Raju Shetty, the Swabhimani Paksha MP from Hatkanangle in Maharashtra, and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from West Bengal, have both shown an increase of 12 criminal cases against themselves. Raju Shetty had declared zero criminal cases in 2009 but mentioned 12 cases this time while Chowdhury, the Baharampur MP, has stated 16 cases in 2014 as against four in 2009.
