According to present Indian law any politician can’t hold office if he is convicted of any criminal offense. However if he is charged with a criminal offence and the case is ongoing, he can continue to participate in politics and even become a Member of Parliament or legislative assembly. Add this with the fact that it takes decades for even small cases to go through the judiciary process, and you can understand why so many criminals continue to be active in Indian politics.
In a recent report compiled by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), 1,448 out of 4,835 total MPs and MLAs in India have criminal cases against them. 641 face serious charges such as rape, murder or kidnapping. Uttar Pradesh government is the most criminal with 29 out of the 58 ministers having criminal records.
One sad part of this statistic is the number of MLAs that are facing rape charges. Ever since the horrific Delhi gang rape case, the Indian public has become outraged with the way we treat our women. At such a time, for these politicians to continue to stay in power is shameful. Many of these politicians claim to have been targeted as part of politics and deny these charges but even so, resigning until their name is cleared would be the right thing to do. And seeing all the other charges against some of these politicians it’s hard to believe that they are not criminals and only victims of dirty politics.
Here are 7 such politicians that have been charged with rape.
7. Jai Narayan
As of now, 6 current MLAs have charges of rape against them but many other politicians who contested legislative assembly elections in the last five years had cases of rape that are still ongoing. One such person is Jai Narayan, an independent candidate from Bansi, Siddharthnagar in Uttar Pradesh who contested in 2012 and lost. He has an ongoing case of rape and other cases on kidnapping and wrongfully concealing and keeping in confinement.
6. Manoj Kumar Paras
Manoj Kumar Paras is an MLA and a minister in the state government of Uttar Pradesh. He is charged with participating in a gang rape. He says he’s being framed and that he won’t resign till the charges are proven against him. He is a Dalit leader who brings in a lot of votes from his constituencies and so Samajwadi Party is reluctant to push him to resign.
5. Anoop Sanda
Anoop Sanda is another member of Samajwadi Party and a current MLA from Uttar Pradesh who’s been accused of rape. He faces many other charges as well, including bribing, intimidation, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly etc. Like all other politicians on this list, the cases have been dragging on for many years as he continues to further his political career.
4. Mohd. Aleem Khan
Mohd. Aleem Khan from Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh belongs to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and is a Member of Legislative Assembly. He has a case of rape ongoing in the courts. He even has cases of robbery and attempt to murder along with wrongful confinement for more than 10 days. Intimidation, rioting etc. are minor offences against him.
3. Jethabai G. Ahir
BJP MLA from Gujarat, Jethabai G. Ahir also has charges related to rape against him. Other cases include kidnapping, extortion, impersonation, forgery etc. He has also been charged with inducing women to compel her marriage.
2. Kandikunta Ventaka Prasad
Kandikunta Ventaka Prasad is an MLA in Andhra Pradesh and belongs to the Telugu Desam Party. He has one charge of rape, one charge of murder, one charge of attempt to murder, one charge of voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous arms or means. And of course he also has a plethora of other minor charges as well.
1. Sribhagwan Sharma
Sribhagwan Sharma aka Guddu Pandit, was an MLA from the side of BSP in Uttar Pradesh. He had been accused for the rape of Sheetal Birla, an Agra University Research scholar. He met and married Sheetal Birla who later realized that he was already married with children and she was just his mistress. While the case continues he has moved on to Samajwadi Party and now is an MLA from the same constituency for his new party.
Aditya Thakur is an ex marine engineer who quit his sailing career to pursue his dreams of being a writer. Now he freelances, blogs and writes short stories all day long.
