Murder, money laundering, domestic violence and more: Tejashwi, Tej Pratap among Bihar ministers facing serious cases

The Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan government is already facing criticism from the opposition BJP over the induction of RJD MLC Kartik Kimar alias Kartikeya Singh as the law minister, who has been facing an arrest warrant in a 2014 kidnapping case.

However, Singh is not the only minister in the newly formed Cabinet against whom a criminal case has been pending.

Out of the 33 ministers in the newly-formed Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, 23 or 72 per cent have declared criminal or grave criminal cases against them. Out of these, 17 are from the RJD, including 11 ministers which have declared serious criminal charges, while four have criminal cases pending.

RJD de facto chief Tejashwi Yadav declared in his 2020 Assembly election that 11 cases are pending against him. In K Haat Purnia case, Tejashwi faces charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 324 (causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 341 (wrongful restraint) and also under provisions of the Arms Act.

In October 2020, the Purnia Police had filed the FIR against Tejashwi, his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav and one more person based on a complaint by Khushboo Yadav, wife of former RJD secretary Shakti Malik who was shot dead. The wife of the deceased accused the RJD leaders of having allegedly hired assailants to kill her husband, reported The Indian Express.

Tejashwi also faces a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case (RC 220/2017, CBI 55/2019) under the IPC sections of 420 (forgery), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and also under the Prevention of Corruption Act. He also faces another case (ECIR/ 08/ HQ/2017) under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and three cases under the Benami Transactions (Prevention) Act.

Tej Pratap Yadav, Tejashwi’s elder brother, is an RJD MLA from Hasanpur (Samastipur). In his election affidavit, Tej Pratap mentioned five cases, including Purnia’s K Haat police station case, pending against him. These include two cases under the Epidemic and Disaster Management Act. He also faces a matrimonial case (1208/2018) under provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act as well as another case (149/2019, Mahila police station, Patna) under the Dowry Prohibition Act.

Consequent to the reconstitution of the Bihar Council of Ministers, the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Bihar Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 32 out of 33 ministers, including the chief minister, submitted during the 2020 Assembly polls.

One Cabinet minister, Ashok Chaudhary of JD(U), who is a nominated member of the Legislative Council, is not required to submit his affidavit, hence his information on criminal, financial and other details are not available in the public domain, the ADR said in its report.

According to the report, 23 ministers (72 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves and 17 ministers (53 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Out of the 32 ministers, 27 (84 per cent) are crorepatis and the average assets of 32 ministers analysed is Rs 5.82 crore.

The minister with the highest declared total assets is Samir Kumar Mahaseth from the Madhubani constituency with assets worth Rs 24.45 crore and the minister with the lowest declared total assets is Murari Prasad Gautam from the Chenari (SC) constituency with assets worth Rs 17.66 lakh.

A total of 23 ministers have declared financial liabilities. The minister with the highest liabilities is Lalit Kumar Yadav from the Darbhanga Rural constituency at Rs 2.35 crore.

Eight ministers (25 per cent) have declared their educational qualification to be between 8th and 12th standard, while 24 (75 per cent) have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above.

A total of 17 ministers have declared their age to be between 30-50 years while 15 have declared their age to be between 51-75 years.

The Council of Ministers has three women.

Of the Council of Ministers, 11 are from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), 16 from the RJD, two from the Congress and one from former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s HAM, besides an Independent.