118 criminal cases against Telangana MLAs, MPs pending before special court

Hyderabad: Around 107 sitting and former legislators in Telangana have criminal cases pending against them, they include crime against women, attempt to murder, kidnap and election related violation. Whist 118 cases registered against MLAs and MPs are pending before a special court, informed a report filed before the Supreme Court.

Three TRS legislators, B. Shankar Nayak, T. Harish Rao, Kancharla Bhupal Reddy, are facing cases for crimes against women. Of the 17 Lok Sabha MPs from Telangana, TRS parliamentarian from Khammam, Nama Nageswara Rao, is accused of outraging the modesty of women. Among all the Lok Sabha members across the country, 19 MPs have declared cases related to crimes against women.

All these cases are pending before the Special Court at Hyderabad. The court has granted a stay in four cases.

The data was submitted to the Supreme Court by Amicus curiae Vijay Hansaria and Advocate Sneha Kalita. The advocates were acting on a direction by the Supreme Court in the PIL filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking speedy disposal of criminal cases against both former MPs and MLAs.

In March, the Supreme Court had asked the High Courts to furnish information regarding pending cases of MPs and MLAs in a prescribed format to Amicus Curiae by August 31.

Some cases are pending since 2012. The status of the cases read: “Summons to the accused to be served.”

Andhra Pradesh

In Andhra Pradesh, there are 106 criminal cases pending before Special Court, Vijaywada, In 85 cases, six sitting MPs, 79 sitting MLAs, 7 former MPs, 53 former MLAs and 53 former MLAs are accused. Court has stayed three cases.

However, in most of the matters, the number of legislators involved is more than the total number of cases. In one such case, 21 accused are legislators.

Most of the cases have been registered under section 188 of IPC which is punishable with imprisonment for up to two years. However, some are punishable with imprisonment for up to 10 years. Some cases are pending for 10 years.

Across the county, the criminal cases pending against sitting and former MLA's and MPs are 4442. The accused include 2556 sitting members.

Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 1217 cases. Of which, 446 cases are pending against sitting legislators.