A total of 22 out of the 28 newly elected MPs from Uttar Pradesh could face possibility of disqualification from the lok Sabha if the trial court convicts them in their pending cases within one year time on the directives of the Supreme Court.
As many as 28 candidates out of the 80, who won the lok Sabha elections in UP, have criminal cases pending against them including 22 with serious crimes like attempt to murders and kidnappings. Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR), in a statement released here on Thursday claimed that out of the total 1,288 candidates in the fray for 80 lok Sabha seats in the state, 235 had criminal background of whom 28 also managed to win.
The Supreme Court in March last had ordered the trial courts to complete all the criminal cases of the politicians within one year of their charge sheet and if they are convicted and jailed for more than two years then they could be disqualified from Parliament.
Meanwhile, ADR in its new finding said that BJP’s MP from Agra, Ramshankar Katheria, who did not have a single criminal case against him in 2009, has been involved in 21 criminal acts including 13 serious crimes. His charges includes four related to voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty (IPC Section-332), three charges related to criminal intimidation (IPC Section-506), one charge related to Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property (IPC Section-420), one charge related to forgery of valuable security,etc. (IPC Section-467), one charge related to forgery for purpose of cheating (IPC Section-468) and one charge related to House-trespassing after preparation for hurt or assault.
BJP member from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath who had just two cases against him in 2009, has got one more criminal case added during the past five years and now a total of three cases are pending against him. Two serious cases each were pending against BJP members Rajendra Agarwal from Meerut and Brij Bhushan Saran Singh from Kaiserganj. One criminal case each is also pending against BJP MPs from Kanpur Murli Manohar Joshi and from Pilibhit Menaka Gandhi. But there are also reports of leaders having criminal cases against them in 2009 but now have no cases against them.
BJP member from Sultanpur Varun Gandhi, who had six cases against him in 2009 elections was proven clean of all the cases. Similarly BJP president Rajnath Singh, who is member from lucknow, and BJP member from Doomariaganj Jagdambika Pal had one case each against them in 2009 have shown themselves clean in this elections.