Out of the 78 ministers in the Union Cabinet, at least 33 (42%) have declared criminal cases against them with four having cases related to attempt to murder, according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi allocated portfolios to the newly-inducted lawmakers shortly after their oath-taking ceremony earlier this week on Wednesday. A total of 15 ministers were inducted into the cabinet, while 28 lawmakers were given Union minister of state berths. Thereby, the total number of members in the Prime Minister's council of ministers now stands at 78.
Those with criminal records
The four ministers -- John Barla, Nitish Pramanik, Pankaj Choudhary, V Muraleedharan -- have cases related to murder attempts. Around 24 (31%) have declared serious criminal cases, including murder, robbery, etc.
The ADR is a poll rights group that frequently publishes reports ahead of elections, tallying affidavits to ascertain the criminal, financial, and other background details of politicians.
Those with 'high assets'
In its analysis of the Union council of ministers in the 17th Lok Sabha following its expansion, the ADR cited election affidavits to also highlight that around 90% members of the new Union cabinet (70 ministers) are millionaires, i.e. they have declared total assets amounting to over ₹10 million (one crore).
Four ministers -- Jyotiraditya Scindia (over ₹379 crore), Piyush Goyal (over ₹95 crore), Narayan Rane (over ₹87 crore), and Rajeev Chandrasekhar (over ₹64 crore) -- have been categorised as 'high asset ministers', which means they have declared assets worth more than ₹50 crore.
The average worth of assets per minister has been found to be around ₹16.24 crore, the report noted. The cabinet ministers who have declared assets worth the lowest in the lot are -- Pratima Bhoumik from Tripura (over ₹6 lakh), John Barla from West Bengal (over ₹14 lakh), Kailash Choudhary from Rajasthan (over ₹24 lakh), Bishweswar Tudu from Odisha (over ₹27 lakh), and V Muraleedharan from Maharashtra (over ₹27 lakh).
