Dharmendra Pradhan resignation: All about former education minister's net worth, education, criminal cases

The resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday has sparked a number of questions on the outgoing BJP leader, who had found himself at the centre of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests over the past few weeks.

The protests stemmed from the NEET paper leak controversy, which affected lakhs of aspirants across the country, even leading to some students dying by suicide.

As the 57-year-old minister steps down, questions of his net worth, education, and criminal case history have also arisen.

Net worth

Pradhan, who entered the Lok Sabha after winning from Odisha's Sambalpur constituency in the 2024 elections, had declared at the time in his affidavit that his individual assets were worth ₹2.32 crore.

After deducting his liabilities of ₹32.80 lakh, it would come to around Rs 1.99 crore.

The ₹2.32-crore figure includes movable assets worth ₹1.40 crore, as well as immovable assets worth ₹92.50 lakh.

His wife, Mridula Thakur Pradhan, declared movable assets worth ₹2.95 crore and immovable assets worth ₹1.38 crore, amounting to a net worth of ₹4.13 crore after deducting liabilities worth ₹20.58 lakh.

As for his daughter, Naimisha—who recently faced some online backlash over her father's earlier refusal to step down amid the CJP protests—declared assets of ₹25.29 lakh, whereas his son, Nishant, has assets worth ₹1.63 lakh.

This brings the family's combined net worth to about ₹6.39 crore, after subtracting their liabilities worth ₹53.38 lakh.

Specifically, Pradhan, who took over the reins of the Union education ministry in July 2021, had reported an income of ₹12.75 lakh for FY 2022-23.

The family’s bank accounts, Public Provident Fund, fixed deposits, and all other types of deposits combined amounted to about ₹1.75 crore. While their mutual fund investments came to ₹80.40 lakh, they are also said to have put in ₹67.72 lakh worth of insurance investments.

Pradhan's affidavit also noted that he has agricultural land worth ₹12 lakh and non-agricultural land valued at ₹20.50 lakh in Odisha's Angul district, in addition to a 50 per cent share in a Ghaziabad apartment worth about ₹60 lakh, with his wife holding the other share.

She also declared residential properties worth ₹1.38 crore.

Pradhan also has 200g of gold and 2.5kg of silver, together valued at Rs 13.50 lakh, while his wife reported 500g of gold and 10kg of silver worth Rs 35 lakh.

Liabilities

Pradhan had declared in the 2024 affidavit that he had an ongoing ₹10.80 lakh housing loan from Punjab National Bank (PNB), as well as other liabilities totalling ₹22 lakh to four people named in the affidavit, while his wife declared a housing loan of ₹20.58 lakh from IDBI Bank.

Criminal cases

Pradhan had declared a MA in Anthropology from Utkal University (1990), which he listed as his highest educational qualification.

Three pending criminal cases—with zero convictions—had also been listed in the 2024 affidavit, which also said that two cases had been registered against him in 2019, for which final reports had been submitted.