Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the Supreme Court steps up its vigil and puts pressure on the Center to set up fast-track courts to try criminal cases involving political personalities, a study conducted by a watchdog found that 87 of the 140 legislators in Kerala Assembly have criminal cases against them.
This accounts for 62 per cent of the lawmakers.
The study by the Association for Democratic Reforms was based on self-sworn affidavits of the legislators to the Election Commission in 2016 polls.
Of the 87 legislators, 27 have serious criminal cases registered against them.
Offenses which carry a maximum punishment of five years or more, non-bailable offenses, electoral offenses and crimes against women etc come under serious criminal cases category.
This means there are more legislators with criminal offenses and serious criminal cases pending against them in the present assembly than in the previous one.
In 2011, 67 legislators had criminal cases registered against them, accounting for 48 per cent of all legislators.
The number of legislators with serious criminal offenses also rose from 12 per cent in 2011 to 19.
There are seven MLAs with declared cases of murder and attempt to murder, as per ADR statistics. Of this, two of them have murder cases against them and five with attempt to murder charges. All of them belong to the CPM, lead partner in ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).
The break-up also reveals that an overwhelming 91 per cent of the CPM MLAs (53 of 58) face criminal cases.
The CPI, the second largest partner in LDF, has 12 of its 19 legislators with criminal charges which amounts to 63 per cent of its legislators.
The Congress, the main Opposition party in the state, has 9 MLAs with criminal charges against them or 42 per cent of its 22 legislators.
Four out of 18 MLAs (22 per cent) of IUML, and four of the six independent MLAs (33%) also face criminal charges.
The CPM emerges topper in legislators with serious criminal cases also with 17 of its MLAs facing such charges.
The opposition Congress comes a close second with 23 per cent or 5 of its 22 legislators facing such charges followed by the CPI which has 3 out of its 19 legislators facing similar cases.
Present status of all these cases are not verified.
CROREPATIS GALORE
Interestingly, the number of crorepati MLAs also saw a significant jump in this House compared to 2011 Assembly. The crorepati legislators accounted for 25 per cent (35 legislators) in the previous assembly which has nearly doubled to 44 per cent (61 MLAs) in the present House.
Transport minister Thomas Chandy (NCP) is the richest legislator with total assets of Rs 92 crore.
Fifteen of the 58 legislators of the CPM are crorepatis while the IUML has 14 crorepatis out of its 18 legislators. The Congress has 13 crorepatis out of its 22 legislators.
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