In Modi 2.0 cabinet, 33 out of 78 ministers have criminal cases against them: Report

10 Jul , 2021 By : Kanchan Joshi

At least 42% (33) of the total 78 ministers in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led cabinet at the Centre have declared criminal cases against them, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Of the 33, four ministers -- John Barla, Nitish Pramanik, Pankaj Choudhary, V Muraleedharan -- have cases related to murder attempts. Around 31% (24) have declared serious criminal cases, including murder, robbery etc.

Further, seven ministers have declared cases related to electoral violation.

As many as 43 MPs took oath as ministers earlier this week in the first major cabinet reshuffle of the second term of Modi government. Fifteen new cabinet ministers and 28 ministers of state were sworn, taking the strength of the council of ministers to 78.

Of all the ministers analysed, Nisith Pramanik from Cooch Behar constituency who has been appointed as the Minister of State for Home Affairs has declared a case related to murder (IPC Section-302) against himself. At 35, he is also the youngest minister in the Cabinet.

Four ministers have declared cases related to an attempt to murder (IPC Section-307). They are -- John Barla, Pramanik, Pankaj Choudhary and V Muraleedharan.

Further, 90% (70) of the new ministers are crorepatis and have declared total assets amounting to over Rs1 crore.

Four ministers -- Jyotiraditya Scindia (over Rs379 crore), Piyush Goyal (over Rs95 crore), Narayan Rane (over Rs87 crore), and Rajeev Chandrasekhar (over Rs64 crore) -- have been categorised as 'high asset ministers', which means they have declared assets worth more than Rs50 crore.

The average worth of assets per minister has been found to be around Rs16.24 crore.

The cabinet ministers who have declared assets worth the lowest in the lot are -- Pratima Bhoumik from Tripura (over Rs6 lakh), John Barla from West Bengal (over Rs14 lakh), Kailash Choudhary from Rajasthan (over Rs24 lakh), Bishweswar Tudu from Odisha (over Rs27 lakh), and V Muraleedharan from Maharashtra (over Rs27 lakh).