May 25, 2004: Rape, murder, dacoity......criteria for becoming ministers?  
 
NEW DELHI: One is on bail for allegedly consuming funds meant for fodder. Another is embroiled in no less than 10 cases, including dacoity and rape. A third one is accused of sheltering Dawood aides, and a fourth one was behind bars till recently for awarding fake BEd degrees. To add that “good economics” bit, one gentleman has been under the CBI scanner for quite some time now for corporate fraud. Meet some of the members of the new Union council of ministers, sworn in on Saturday under PM Manmohan Singh.

Bihar takes the cake with five of its ten ministers having a tainted record. The rot starts from the top –– ‘Kingmaker’ Laloo himself. In fact, when ET contacted CBI to know when his next bail plea is going to come up, this was what we got: “In all, there are 61 cases linked to the fodder scam, being tried in courts in Ranchi and Patna. We have to look into the files to be precise.”
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Rape, murder, dacoity... Are these criteria for becoming ministers?
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-693643,curpg-2.cms

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, MAY 24, 2004