Source: 
Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Crimes-against-women-Cases-pending-against-lawmakers/articleshow/17701369.cms
Date: 
20.12.2012
City: 
New Delhi

VARANASI: As public outrage grows against the heinous incident of rape in Delhi and the parliament discusses the issue, a report has revealed that there are several lawmakers who have similar cases pending against them as per their last affidavit declaration to the ECI. Even larger number of such people have been given tickets by political parties to contest elections in the last five years. 

The report was released on Thursday byAssociation for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) who looked at the background of lawmakers (MPs and MLAs) with respect to rape cases and other crimes against women based on their affidavits. The report shows that there are several MPs/MLAs with declared cases of rape and other crimes against women, and political parties continue to field such candidates. The ADR/NEW strongly recommended that political parties should stop giving tickets to candidates with criminal backgrounds and those who have been charged with serious crimes like murder, attempt to murder, and crimes against women such as rape. The candidates with a criminal background should be debarred from contesting elections and political parties should be forced to disclose the criteria on which candidates are given tickets, they said, demanding that cases against MPs and MLAs should be fast tracked and decided upon in a time bound manner. 

All information about candidates, MLAs and ministers in this report has been taken from affidavits filed by the candidates with their nomination papers. 

According to the report, six MLAs have declared that they have charges of rape against them in their sworn affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India at the time of their election. Of these six MLAs with declared rape cases, three are from Samajwadi Party (SP) from Uttar Pradesh, one from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from UP, one of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Gujarat and one from Andhra Pradesh's TDP. 

Besides, 36 other MLAs have declared that they have other charges of crimes against women such as outraging the modesty of a woman, assault, and insulting the modesty of a woman. Of these, 6 MLAs are from INC, 5 from BJP and 3 from SP. Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of MLAs (8) who have declared that they have charges of crimes against women, followed by Orissa and West Bengal with 7 MLAs each. 

Two MPs -one of ADMK from Salem constituency in Tamil Nadu and another of AITC from Tamluk constituency in West Bengal have declared that they have charges of crimes against women, such as cruelty and intent to outrage a woman's modesty. 

The report says that political parties gave tickets to 27 candidates who contested the state elections in the last five years and who have declared that they have been charged with rape. Of these, 7 are independent candidates, 5 have been given tickets by SP, 2 have been given tickets by BJP and 2 are BSP candidates. 

Out of these 27 candidates who declared rape charges, 10 are from UP and 5 are from Bihar. The political parties also gave tickets to 260 other contesting candidates in the legislative assembly elections held in the last five years who have declared that they have charges of crimes against women. 

Out of the 260 candidates, 72 are IND candidates, 24 have been given tickets by the BJP, 26 candidates have been given tickets by the INC, 16 have been given tickets by the SP and 18 have been given tickets by BSP. Maharashtra has the maximum number of such candidates (41), followed by UP (37) and West Bengal (22). 

The report further says that in Lok Sabha 2009 elections, political parties gave tickets to six candidates who declared that they have been charged with rape. Of these, one is from RPP, one from RCP, one from BSP, one from JMM and two independent candidates. Out of these 6 candidates, 3 are from Bihar, one from Delhi, one from UP and one from Andhra Pradesh.

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