NEW DELHI (TIP): Two sitting MPsand six sitting legislators in differentstates were fielded by their partiesdespite cases of crimes againstwomen pending against them, a thinktank said on Thursday, four days aftera 23-year-old medical student wasgangraped in Delhi. Data compiled byAssociation for Democratic Reforms(ADR) showed that parties like theCongress, Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP) andBahujan Samaj Party (BSP) gavetickets to candidates with charges ofrape and other atrocities againstwomen in different states.

Referring to affidavits filed bylawmakers ahead of their election,ADR said MPs S Semmalai of theAIADMK from Salem constituency inTamil Nadu and Suvendu Adhikari ofthe Trinamool Congress from Tamlukconstituency in West Bengal declaredthat they were facing charges ofcruelty and intent to outrage awoman’s modesty. There were sixlegislators across state assemblieswith rape charges against them, itsaid. Another 36 legislators declaredthat they were facing charges such asassault and molestation, it said.The think tank said that out of thesix legislators with rape cases, threewere from Uttar Pradesh andmembers of the SP.

They are:Sribhagwan Sharma, Anoop Sandaand Manoj Kumar Paras. The threeother legislators facing rape chargeswere: Mohd Aleem Khan of the BJPin Uttar Pradesh, Jethabhai G Ahirof the BJP in Gujarat andKandikunta Venkata Prasad of theTelugu Desam Party in AndhraPradesh.Of the 36 legislators, who declaredin their affidavits that they werefacing charges of crimes againstwomen, six were from the Congress,five from the BJP and three from theSP, ADR said. Uttar Pradesh has themaximum number of legislators(eight) who declared in their affidavitsthat they were facing charges ofcrimes against women, followed byOdisha and West Bengal with sevenlawmakers each.The think tank said 27 candidateswith rape charges contested differentstate elections in the past five years.