Know about Indian law makers who turned out to be lawbreakers

New Delhi: India is the world's most populous democracy. We elect lawmakers and choose our own leaders, but do they actually deserve being on the power seat?A staggering 162 out of 543 honorable members of India's Lok Sabha face criminal charges, according to a new report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a nonprofit election watchdog.Worse still, statistics show that a candidate with a criminal record is nearly twice as likely as one with a clean record to win a seat at the big table.However, in July the Supreme Court has ruled that persons with criminal background cannot contest elections. Here are some lawmakers of India who are also lawbreakers: 1. Mohammed Shahabuddin One of India's most powerful criminal lawmakers, he was four times the Member of Parliament from Siwan, Bihar. He is presently serving life sentence on charge of kidnapping with intent to murder. He is facing trial in more than 30 criminal cases, out of which eight are murder cases, 20 cases relate to attempt to murder was behind bars on charges of kidnapping with intent to murder and other cases of kidnapping and extortion. 2. Raghuraj Pratap Singh Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiya is an elected MLA in Uttar Pradesh and was minister in the governments of Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Akhilesh Yadav. He had been behind bars under India's Prevention of Terrorism Act on charges related to an alleged kidnapping. He was jailed in 2002 for threatening and kidnapping Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Puran Singh Bundela.However when Mulayam Singh government took over, he was released and charges against him were dropped. He then became the minister for Food and Civil Supplies in 2005. His name again figured in the conspiracy to murder DSP Zia ul Haq in Kunda, but later he got a clean chit from CBI, which did not find concrete evidence against him. He still has several criminal cases pending against him. 3. Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad Yadav, who ruled Bihar for over a decade was convicted by special CBI judge Pravas Kumar Singh for his involvement in a multi-crore fodder scam. As such, he faced immediate disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP and his political future too is in jeopardy. He has been convicted of corruption, criminal conspiracy and cheating. Lalu was among the 45 people facing charges in the RC 20 A/96 case and had been charged with fraudulent withdrawing of 37.7 crore on fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s. 4. Vitthal Radadiya Former Gujarat MP Vitthal Radadiya, infamous for pulling a gun at a toll booth attendant, landed in a major controversy last year after he was caught on camera brandishing a gun and allegedly threatening a toll booth attendant near Vadodara.He is now the BJP candidate from Porbandar for Lok Sabha bypolls. 5. Kameshwar Baitha An MP from Palamau constituency in Jharkhand, he has the highest number of criminal cases pending against him. This include 17 for murder, 22 for attempted murder, 6 for assault with a dangerous weapon, 5 for theft, 2 for extortion, and so on, a legacy from Baitha's previous career as a leader of the local Maoist insurgency. 6. Atiq Ahmed Member of the 14th Lok Sabha from the Phulpur (Lok Sabha Constituency) in Uttar Pradesh, Atiq Ahmed has 43 criminal cases against him. A former Lok Sabha MP, Ahmed was arrested in 2008 for his involvement in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal.This former MP is out on bail since February 2012. 7. Mukhtar Ansari Mukhtar Ansari, an independent legislator from Mau was an accused in the 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. Ansari was charged under section 3(4) of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for being a member of an organized crime syndicate. He has many criminal charges of murder, extortion, money laundering against him and is under police custody since December 2005. Ansari is an extreme embodiment of the growing criminality among Indian politicians. 8. Hansaraj Gangaram AhirHansaraj Gangaram Ahir, Bharatiya Janata Party MP from the Chandrapur constituency in Maharashtra has 30 pending criminal charges against him. Out of which he has not been convicted as yet in any of them. His other offences are pending under sections 135,294,337,427,131,143,188,341,186 of the Indian Penal Code. He also has 16 cases of rioting, causing hurt, wrongful confinement and causing damage. Ironically, it was because of Ahir's RTI applications that the coal mining scam known as Coalgate spilled out in the open.