Delhi HC court rejects Om Prakash Chautala’s plea
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s plea challenging his conviction and 10 years sentence for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior teachers 12 years ago.
The senior Chautala, who was held as the “main conspirator” in the scam by the court, was found guilty of cheating, forgery, using fake documents as genuine and conspiracy under the IPC and for abusing his official position under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In his plea, Chautala had sought suspension of sentence on health grounds that he is 70 percent disabled and requires constant supervision.
“The applicant had to be hospitalized (after verdict on conviction on January 16) for chest pain, difficulty in breathing, fluctuations in blood pressure and coronary heart disease and till recently was in G B Pant Hospital,” the plea said.
While seeking urgent hearing of his appeal, Chautala contended that the order of the trial court was liable to be set aside as “it was against the tenets of law as well as contrary to the evidence.”
He said, “The present case is false, fictitious and subsumed with political overtones” and he ought not to be put to “such great prejudice and hardship” due to his conviction and incarceration during the pendency of the accompanying appeal, which is unlikely to be disposed of expeditiously.
“In such a scenario, only singling out the appellant (Chautala) merely because he is the Chief Minister is unwarranted and erroneous. Further, it a settled principle that in a Cabinet, the Chief Minister is only first among equals,” the petition filed by advocate Siddharth Aggarwal said.
Apart from the Chautalas (father and son), the then Director of Primary Education Sanjiv Kumar, Chautala’s former Officer on Special Duty Vidya Dhar, both IAS officers, political advisor to the then Haryana CM Sher Singh Badshami were given 10 years jail terms.
The remaining five, including a woman, who have been awarded 10 years jail term, were Madan Lal Kalra, Durga Dutt Pradhan, Bani Singh, Ram Singh and Daya Saini.
Apart from them, one convict has been handed five years and the rest 44 were given four years imprisonment. Among the 55 convicts, 16 were women officials.
