The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered 56 FIRs against Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) during the last five years and completed the probe to file chargesheet in 22 cases, the Lok Sabha was informed on the opening day of the winter session on Wednesday.

Andhra Pradesh topped the States with 10 cases registered between 2017 and 2022, said Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, while sharing data in a written response to a query.

Uttar Pradesh and Kerala followed with six cases each. There were five cases each in West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh, four in Tamil Nadu, three each in Manipur, Delhi and Bihar, two each in Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka and one each in Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Lakshadweep, the Lok Sabha data revealed.

Conviction rate

The CBI’s conviction rate in the last five years ranged from 66.90 per cent in 2017 to 67.56 per cent in 2021. According to the Minister’s reply, the highest conviction rate of 69.83 per cent in the last five years was recorded in 2020.

The Supreme Court, hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on expediting criminal trials against sitting and former MPs, MLAs and MLCs, was told last month by amicus curiae senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria that 3,096 cases are pending against the legislators in 20 States and Union Territories. Of these, 962 were dragging for over 5 years, the amicus curiae’s report flagged.

Among the investigating agencies, ED cases were pending against 51 MPs, and 71 MLAs and MLCs (sitting and former). The CBI’s count is 121 cases pending trial against MPs/MLAs (and former MPs/MLAs) of which 51 are MPs (14 sitting and 37 former; 5 of the members are deceased) and 112 MLAs (34 sitting and 78 former, including 9 deceased). The NIA is probing four cases of which two involve MPs/MLAs

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