Two MPs, six legislators in India face rape charges, reports watchdog group

New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) Two sitting MPs and six sitting legislators in different states were fielded by their parties despite cases of crimes against women pending against them, a think tank said Thursday, four days after a woman was gang-raped here.

Data compiled by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed that parties like the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) gave tickets to candidates with charges of rape and other atrocities against women in different states.

Referring to affidavits filed by lawmakers ahead of their election, ADR said MPs S. Semmalai of the AIADMK from Salem constituency in Tamil Nadu and Suvendu Adhikari of the Trinamool Congress from Tamluk constituency in West Bengal declared that they were facing charges of cruelty and intent to outrage a woman’s modesty.

There were six legislators across state assemblies with rape charges against them, it said.

Another 36 legislators declared that they were facing charges such as assault and molestation, it said.

The think tank said that out of the six legislators with rape cases, three were from Uttar Pradesh and members of the SP. They are: Sribhagwan Sharma, Anoop Sanda and Manoj Kumar Paras.

The three other legislators facing rape charges were: Mohd. Aleem Khan of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Jethabhai G. Ahir of the BJP in Gujarat and Kandikunta Venkata Prasad of the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh.

Of the 36 legislators, who declared in their affidavits that they were facing charges of crimes against women, six were from the Congress, five from the BJP and three from the SP, ADR said.

Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of legislators (eight) who declared in their affidavits that they were facing charges of crimes against women, followed by Orissa and West Bengal with seven lawmakers each.

The think tank said 27 candidates with rape charges contested different state elections in the last five years.