India's 151 MP-MLA accused in women torture and rape cases

India's 151 MP-MLA accused in women torture and rape cases

151 sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) and MLAs (MLAs) have cases of harassment against women in India. There are allegations of rape against 16 people. West Bengal has the highest number of legislators in this list. These MPs and MLAs mentioned such cases in their election affidavits. Recently, an organization called Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) conducted a survey on the affidavits submitted by the candidates to the Election Commission during the 2019 to 2024 elections in India. The organization examined the affidavits of 4,693 out of a total of 4,809 MP-MLAs in the survey. According to the survey, there are 16 MPs and 135 MLAs against women in India. In this list, the names of the maximum 25 people have come from the leaders of West Bengal. Apart from this, 21 MP-MLAs of Andhra Pradesh and 17 of Odisha are accused in women abuse cases. According to the report, currently two MPs and 14 MLAs of India are accused in the rape case. Under the Indian Penal Code, such offenses are punishable by a minimum of 10 years to life imprisonment. Investigation shows that in these cases against MP-MLAs, some of them have been accused of repeatedly torturing the same victim. Among the accused MP-MLAs in the women abuse case, maximum 54 leaders belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Then there are 23 leaders of Congress and 17 leaders of the third Telugu Desam Party. There are five legislators each from both the BJP-Congress parties who have been accused of rape. ADR has expressed deep concern over the results of the survey. They stressed that political parties should refrain from giving tickets to candidates with criminal pasts, especially those accused of rape and other crimes. ADR urged the police to ensure speedy and thorough investigation against the accused MPs and MLAs. PTI, NDTV.