Delhi court to take call on verdict against OP Chautala

NEW DELHI:  A Delhi court will pronounce its order on Friday on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. Special Judge Vikas Dhull on Thursday heard the arguments from the counsels for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well as Chautala who was convicted in the case of acquiring disproportionate assets from 1993 to 2006.

Chautala urged the court to grant him minimum punishment, citing medical ailments and old age. The CBI, meanwhile, sought maximum punishment for the convict, saying it would send a message to society. The agency further said that Chautala was not having clean antecedents since it was the second case in which he has been convicted.

The court had last week convicted Chautala and said the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such dis-proportionality by proving his source of income or means by way of which, he acquired assets during this period.

The investigation team had filed the case in 2005, and a charge sheet was filed on March 26, 2010, accusing him of amassing assets disproportionate to his legitimate income, between 1993 and 2006.

According to the CBI’s FIR Chautala, while functioning as Chief Minister of Haryana during the period from July 24, 1999, to March 5, 2005, in collusion with his family members and others, accumulated assets, immovable and movable, disproportionate to his known lawful sources of income, in his name, in the names of his family members. The disproportionate assets were calculated to be `6.09 crore, 189.11 per cent of his known sources of income.