The heinous rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary in Hyderabad last week have left the entire nation in the state of shock. Reports of multiple rape cases surfaced in the past week, questioning the safety of women in this country.

While the BJP parliamentarians yesterday, on December 2 condemned the act and called for a stricter law, the Association for Democratic Reforms in a report in 2017 revealed that the ruling party – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had the highest number of lawmakers booked for crimes against women.

The report revealed that as many as 51 politicians had declared cases of crime against women, including cases of alleged rape and abduction.

Among the 51, 48 were MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) and three were MPs (Member of Parliament).

According to the report, 334 candidates were found to have declared cases related to crime against women. These candidates were given electoral tickets by recognised parties.

The report had a party-wise segment where candidates with the highest number of declared cases of crimes related to women were analysed. BJP ranked the highest with 14 MPs and MLAs with crimes like alleged rape and abduction.

This was followed by the Shiv Sena (7) and All India Trinamool Congress (6).

According to the report, state-wise, Maharashtra had the highest number of MPs/MLAs that is 12, followed by West Bengal with 11 and Odisha with 6 MPs and MLAs who had declared cases of crime against women.

The ADR analysed 4,852 out of 4,896 election affidavits of MPs and MLAs. It included 774 out of 776 affidavits of MPs and 4,078 out of 4,120 MLAs from all states of India. Over the five years (2012-2017), 48 candidates with declared cases of crime against women were given tickets by the BJP.

The second-highest number of candidates (36) who had declared cases related to crime against women were given tickets by the BSP, followed by 27 candidates from the Indian National Congress who contested for Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state assemblies elections.

In the five year period, Maharashtra had the highest number of candidates (65) followed by Bihar (62) and West Bengal (52) (including independents) who were given tickets by political parties even though they declared cases related to crime against women in their affidavits, the study added.

The report also said that 122 independent candidates who had contested elections in the five years also had similar cases against them.

Also Read: Six Terrifying Rapes In One Week Send Shockwaves Across Country