76 J&K MLAs crorepatis, nine facing criminal cases: Report

While 76 of the 90 newly-elected MLAs in Jammu and Kashmir are crorepatis, nine of them have criminal cases against them, according to a report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-government organisation.

The National Conference (NC), which won the highest 42 of the 90 Assembly seats, has 37 ‘crorepati’ MLAs, followed by BJP whose 25 of the 29 MLAs have wealth above Rs 1 crore.

“Out of the 90 winning candidates, 76 (84%) are crorepatis. As many as 37 out of the 42 winning candidates from the NC, 25 out of the 29 winning candidates from the BJP, all six winning candidates from the Congress, two out of three winning candidates from the PDP, sole winning candidate from the CPM, sole winning candidate from the J&K People’s Conference and four out of seven Independent winning candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore,” the report stated.

Interestingly, J&K Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra tops the chart with movable and immovable assets worth Rs 148 crore, while senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana is second in the list with assets worth Rs 126 crore, as per the ADR report.

The sole winning MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Mehraj Malik, has movable assets worth only Rs 29,000.

As per the ADR report, out of the 90 winning candidates, nine have declared criminal cases against themselves.

“Five out of 42 winning candidates from the NC, two out of 29 from the BJP, one out of three from the PDP and the sole AAP MLA have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits,” the report stated. Talking about serious criminal cases, four from the NC, two from the BJP, one of the PDP and one AAP candidate have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, it added.

As per the ADR report, Waheed Ur Rehman Para, who is the PDP MLA from the Pulwama constituency, has three charges against him - conspiracy to commit offences, sedition and criminal conspiracy.

BJP’s Randhir Singh, who won from the Kalakote-Sunderbani constituency in Rajouri, has multiple cases against him. These include criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, forgery of valuable security, will, etc., forgery for purpose of cheating, causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender among others.

NC’s Mian Mehar Ali, who won from the Kangan constituency, also has several charges, including assault or use of criminal force against woman to outrage her modesty, assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe, subjecting a married woman to cruelty, and charge related to robbery among others.

NC candidates top the chart

• The National Conference (NC), which won the highest 42 of the 90 Assembly seats, has 37 crorepati MLAs, followed by the BJP whose 25 of the 29 MLAs have wealth above Rs 1 crore.
• The sole winning MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Mehraj Malik, has movable assets worth only Rs 29,000.