Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala. (File)A Delhi court Thursday will hear the arguments from prosecution and the defence before deciding on the quantum of punishment to be awarded to former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, who has been convicted in the disproportionate assets case.
The quantum of punishment is likely to be pronounced by the Rouse Avenue court in New Delhi. Chautala was held guilty on May 23 in the case registered against him in 2005. The INLD supremo is supposed to be present in the court during the proceedings.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was probing the case, had filed a chargesheet against Chautala on March 26, 2010. The agency contended that between 1993 and 2006, the seven-time MLA had amassed assets worth over Rs 6.09 crore, far exceeding his known sources of income. The Chautala family had slammed the case as “political vendetta”.
In 2019, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached his assets worth Rs 3.68 crore, including his flat and plots in New Delhi, Panchkula and Sirsa, under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Best of Express Premium
This is Om Prakash Chautala’s second conviction after he was pronounced guilty by the Supreme Court in 2013 in the JBT teachers’ recruitment scam and sentenced to seven years in jail on corruption charges and 10 years on charges of criminal conspiracy. Chautala was released from Tihar jail on July 2 last year after completing his sentence in the case. Since his release from jail, Chautala had been active and had even started touring the rural areas of Haryana in a bid to revive the INLD.
Chautala served as the state’s chief minister four times – from July 24, 1999 to March 5, 2005; from March 22, 1991 to April 6, 1991; from July 12, 1990 to July 17, 1990; and from December 2, 1989 to May 22, 1990.
Soon after the quantum of punishment will be announced, Chautala’s counsels are likely to appeal against the court’s order in a higher court of law, seeking relief for him.
Chautala’s counsel Harsh Kumar Sharma said that the defence would try its best to plead in the court for leniency. He said that the defence shall be citing grounds that Chautala had already served 10 years sentence in the JBT teachers recruitment case and is also 90 per cent physically disabled. “We shall be pleading in the court that the custody period that he had already served should be included in this quantum of punishment in this disproportionate assets case. We shall be making efforts that he should not get back into custody. We shall also be appealing against this order in the higher court of law,” Sharma said.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
