Bengal has the highest number of elected representatives with declared cases of crime against women, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms and the National Election Watch.
In Bengal, 63 MLAs, four Lok Sabha MPs and two Rajya Sabha MPs had declared pending cases of crimes against women mentioned in their affidavits submitted to the Election Commission during the filing of nomination.
The number of MPs and MLAs with pending cases of crime against women in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are 22 and 17 respectively.
Two Lok Sabha MPs and 12 MLAs from different parties across India have rape cases pending against them. Among these, one of the MPs and two MLAs are from Bengal.
Among all the parties, two sitting MLAs and two sitting MPs from the BJP, the four MLAs from Congress, and one MLA each from the TDP, Democratic Trinamool Congress, BJD, National People’s Party, Bharat Adivasi Party and AISF had declared rape cases pending against them.
The analysis of affidavits of 772 sitting MPs and 4,109 MLAs revealed that 168 MLAs and 19 sitting MPs have declared cases of crimes against women registered against their names.
The ruling BJP at the Centre and in Bengal and 16 other states has the highest number of elected representatives accused of crimes against women.
The BJP has 95 MLAs, 10 Lok Sabha MPs and one Rajya Sabha MP who are accused of crimes against women.
The Congress has 19 MLAs and one Lok Sabha MP facing similar charges, while the BJP’s ally TPD has 17 MLAs and one Rajya Sabha MP facing similar charges.
One Rajya Sabha MP from the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, one Independent Lok Sabha MP and five Independent MLAs also feature in the list of elected representatives accused of crimes against women.
The nature of the crimes ranges from acid attack to rape, outraging of modesty, sexual harassment, abduction or intimidation of a woman to compel her to marry and stalking, among others.
The Supreme Court had in February 2020 directed political parties to declare the reasons behind nominating candidates with criminal antecedents to contest elections.
The ADR said in its report that the political parties have continued to defy the apex court’s orders on publishing the criminal records of their nominees.
Several affidavits cited with the report showed the charges were yet to be framed. The ADR has recommended time-bound probes and trials of criminal cases registered against politicians.