New Delhi, September 5: Nearly half of India’s ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, including serious charges like murder, kidnapping, and crimes against women, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Wednesday.
The analysis, based on the self-sworn affidavits of 643 ministers from 27 state assemblies, three Union Territories, and the Union Council of Ministers, revealed that 302 ministers (47%) are facing criminal cases, while 174 of them are booked under serious charges.
The findings come in the wake of the Centre proposing three new bills that seek the removal of Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, or other ministers if they are arrested and held for more than 30 days on serious criminal charges.
Among Union ministers, 29 out of 72 (40%) declared criminal cases. Of the 336 BJP ministers analyzed, 136 (40%) had criminal charges, including 88 facing serious allegations. The Congress had the highest percentage, with 74% of its 61 ministers reporting criminal cases, and 30% facing serious charges.
Several state assemblies reported alarmingly high percentages of ministers with criminal records. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, and Delhi are among 11 assemblies where over 60% of ministers have declared criminal cases.
In contrast, ministers from Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, and Uttarakhand reported no criminal cases in their affidavits.
Among parties, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) topped the list with 96% of its ministers (22 out of 23) facing criminal charges, followed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), where 69% of ministers were found to have cases against them.
The ADR report also analyzed the financial backgrounds of these ministers, revealing that the average assets of Indian ministers stand at ₹37.21 crore. The total assets of all 643 ministers amount to a staggering ₹23,929 crore.
Karnataka leads the list with eight billionaire ministers, followed by Andhra Pradesh (6), and Maharashtra (4). At the Union level, six of 72 ministers (8%) are billionaires.
The richest minister in India is Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani of the TDP, representing Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur, with declared assets worth over ₹5,705 crore. He is followed by Karnataka’s D.K. Shivakumar (₹1,413 crore) and Andhra CM N. Chandrababu Naidu (₹931 crore).
At the other end of the spectrum, ministers like Sukla Charan Noatia of Tripura and Birbaha Hansda of West Bengal reported modest assets worth ₹2 lakh and ₹3 lakh, respectively.
ADR clarified that the criminal case statuses are based on affidavits submitted during elections between 2020 and 2025, and may have changed since then.
