Current affairs

That former Chief Minister, who recently cleared Class 12 exams, now gets four-year jail: Here's why

By alagu, 27 May, 2022
Om Prakash Chautala, Haryana, Delhi, CBI

Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has on Friday- May 27 awarded a four-year prison sentence by a Delhi Court. Recently, Chautala was in the spotlight across the nation for clearing his Class 12 exams at the age of 87. He has now become one of the political leaders to get convicted in a Disproportionate Assets (DA) case. 

Special Judge Vikas Dhull has also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on Chautala in the case of amassing more assets from 1993 to 2006. According to reports, the judge has also directed the authorities to confiscate four of his properties. Last week, the court had convicted Chautala and said that the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such disproportionality by proving his source of income or means by way of which, he had acquired assets during this period. 

The CBI has filed the case in 2005, and a charge sheet was filed on March 26, 2010, in which the Central agency has accused Chautala of amassing assets disproportionate to his legitimate income, between 1993 and 2006. According to the CBI's FIR, Chautala had piled assets in collusion with his family members and others while he was serving as the Chief Minister of Haryana from July 24, 1999, to March 5, 2005. 

The assets include both movable and immovable that were disproportionate to his known lawful sources of income and they were amassed in his name and in the names of his family members. The disproportionate assets were calculated to the tune of Rs 6.09 crore, which is 189.11 per cent more than his known sources of income. 

Chautala has also been the Chief of the Indian National Lok Dal party and he had served as the Haryana 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. It must be noted that it is the second case that Chautala has got convicted and sent to prison.

Previously, in 2013, he was found guilty of the teachers' recruitment scam in Haryana.  He was awarded a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted in this scam case and he was lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail. Om Prakash Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala, and 53 others including former IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar were convicted and sentenced in the case of illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in 2000. They were all sentenced to jail terms in the case by a special CBI court in January 2013.

He was later released from the jail and during his incarceration, had cleared his Class 10 exams from the National Open School in 2017 from the prison. However, he had failed to clear the English exam. He had appeared for the English exam last year and recently, he went on to clear the Class 12 exams at the age of 87. Chautala is the son of Chaudhary Devi Lal, the former Deputy Prime Minister of India. 

 

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