50% of Nitish Kumar’s Bihar ministers have serious criminal cases: ADR

The ADR report was based on an analysis of the election affidavits filed by the 32 ministers excluding minister Ashok Chaudhary, who is a nominated member of the Bihar legislative council.

PATNA: Every second minister in the new Grand Alliance government in Bihar faces a senior criminal case, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Election Watch released on Wednesday.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar with deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and cabinet ministers at a meeting at Old Secretariat in Patna on Tuesday. (PTI)

The ADR report was based on an analysis of the election affidavits filed by the 32 ministers excluding minister Ashok Chaudhary, who is a nominated member of the Bihar legislative council.

ADR said there 23 of the 32 ministers (about 72%) have criminal cases pending against them. Of them, 17 (53%) ministers face serious criminal cases against them.

In comparison, 14 ministers in the previous NDA government that was also headed by Nitish Kumar faced serious criminal cases. According to an ADR and Election Watch report based on affidavits of 28 of the 31 ministers in the NDA government, there were 18 ministers who had criminal cases registered against them including 14 who faced serious cases.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav also have cases registered against them.

According to ADR’s party-wise analysis, 15 (88%) of the 17 ministers from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have declared criminal cases while 11 (65%) have serious criminal cases against them.

In comparison, only four (36)% of the 11 ministers from chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United, or JD(U), have criminal cases against them while 3 (27%) have serious criminal cases against them.

Both Congress ministers have criminal cases and one of them is facing serious criminal charges.

ADR said a serious criminal case involves an offence for which the maximum punishment is a jail term of five years or more, or an offence that is non-bailable, or an electoral offence mentioned in Representation of the People Act, offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and crimes against women.

ADR said of the 32 ministers whose records were analysed, eight (25%) have declared their educational qualifications to be between class 8 and 12 while 24 (75%) ministers have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above.

The lowest educational qualification is held by deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, who has declared his education as class 8. His elder brother, Tej Pratap Yadav, has studied up to class 12.

There are seven ministers who have studied till class 12, seven are graduates, five are graduate professionals, 10 are post-graduates and two hold doctorate degrees.

The average assets of the 32 ministers analysed are ₹5.82 crore. Out of 17 RJD ministers, 16 (94%) are crorepatis, whereas 9 out of 11 JD (U) ministers (82%) are crorepatis.

The minister with the highest declared total assets is Samir Kumar Mahaseth (RJD) from Madhubani seat. He has declared assets worth ₹24.45crore.

Murari Prasad Gautam (Congress), MLA from Chenari (SC) constituency, according to his affidavit, has the lowest assets, ( ₹17.66 lakh).