Delhi CBI court convicts Om Prakash Chautala in DA case

CHANDIGARH: Less than a year after former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala was released from jail after serving sentence in the teachers recruitment scam case, a special CBI court in Delhi on Saturday held him guilty of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. The quantum of sentence would be pronounced by the court on May 26.
The 87-year-old leader was released from Tihar jail in July 2021.
On April 3, 2006, a case was registered against OP Chautala and others on allegations that he as chief minister of Haryana from July 24, 1999, to March 5, 2005, in collusion with his family members and others, had accumulated assets, immovable and movable, disproportionate to his known sources of income, in his name and in the names of his family members and others.
After investigation, a chargesheet was filed in this case on March 26, 2010, against him. The extent of disproportionate assets was around Rs 6,09,79,026, which has been quantified to be 189.11% of his income between 1993-2006. There were around 257 prosecution witnesses in the case.
Chautala’s sons, Abhay Singh and Ajay Singh Chautala are also accused in this case but are facing trial separately. Reacting to this, Chautala’s grandson and JJP leader Digvijay Chautala said, “We are very upset after the Delhi court’s decision on the conviction of my grandfather and state’s popular leader, O P Chautala. We have full faith in the judicial system and are hopeful that my grandfather would get reprieve from the higher courts.”