New Delhi: Of the 58 ministers, who took oath as members of the Union Council of Ministers, at least 22 have declared criminal cases against themselves according to their self-sworn affidavits filed at the time of election, reveals an report of election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
As many as 16 ministers in new Modi Cabinet have against them serious criminal cases, including charges of attempt to murder, causing communal disharmony and electoral violations, 11 ministers had such charges against them in the previous cabinet.
The ADR report was released after analyzing affidavits of 56 of the 58 ministers. The data for Ram Vilas Paswan and former foreign secretary S Jaishankar is not included as both of them are not part of any of the houses of Parliament currently.
The number of ministers with criminal cases has increased by eight percentage page when compared with data of the 64 ministers analysed by the ADR which showed 20 had declared criminal cases against them in the 2014 Union Council of Ministers.
The count of those with serious criminal cases has increased by 12 percentage points, the report said.
(With inputs from Agencies)