Court, Jail and Graft Controversies for Haryana Leader Chautala
NEW DELHI : For a 79-year-old who’s meant to be seriously unwell, Om Prakash Chautala is an incredibly busy man. The politician, who has held an impressively voluminous campaign in Haryana ahead of the state election, was in a Delhi court this morning in connection with a corruption case. He has also been summoned by the Delhi High Court this afternoon to explain why he has been putting in star turns at election meetings when he applied for – and was granted bail – for treatment for an alleged heart condition.
“He will run the government from jail,” predicted his 51-year-old son, Abhay, to REporters.That would take some doing. Mr Chautala has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for misusing his office as chief minister in 1999 to run a corruption-ridden scheme to recruit teachers for government institutions. Unless his conviction is over-turned by a higher court, he cannot hold office according to a landmark Supreme Court judgement last year.Mr Chautala has served four times as Haryana’s chief minister, a record he is hoping to better by one when the state votes next week.
“There were no conditions that barred me from meeting the people,” Mr Chautala told reporters today, rebutting allegations that he has blatantly violated the terms of his bail – a charge levelled by the CBI yesterday in the Delhi High Court. It was a CBI investigation that led to Mr Chautala being sentenced to 10 years in prison for the teacher recruitment scam. Another case – the one for which he appeared in a Delhi court this morning – accuses him of amassing wealth that cannot be explained by his declared sources of income.
