Om Prakash Chautala gets four years in disproportionate assets case: The long, slow fall of ex-Haryana chief minister

File image of Om Prakash Chautala

On Friday, a Delhi court sentenced Om Prakash Chautala to four years in prison in a disproportionate assets case.  The court also imposed a Rs 50 lakh fine on the former Haryana chief minister.

Let’s take a look at the Indian National Lok Dal supremo, examine this case and his fall from grace in politics:

Who is Chautala?

Chautala, son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, has been chief minister of Haryana five times: in a tenure ranging from six days to six years.

Despite his political successes, Chautala never quite reached the same political heights that his father Devi Lal attained at the state and national level.

When was the case lodged?

The CBI had lodged the case all the way back in 2005.

In a charge sheet was filed on 26, March 2010, the agency accused Chautala of amassing assets worth Rs 6.09 crore, much disproportionate to his legitimate income, between 1993 and 2006.

Chautala had refuted the allegations, calling them “political vendetta”.

As per Scroll, the Central Bureau of Investigation found that Chautala had bought properties in Delhi and Haryana from the money he received from unknown sources.

Chautala in turn claimed to have purchased the properties legally and had even mentioned them in an affidavit submitted to the returning officer during Haryana Assembly elections in 2005 and 2009, the agency said.

In 2019, the Enforcement Directorate attached Chautala’s assets worth Rs 3.68 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, as per the report.

Why did it take so long?

Medical reasons.

As per Indian Express, Chautala had been seeking adjournments on multiple grounds during the trial: getting a pacemaker for his heart, a surgery, not being delivered summons, getting admitted in hospital without informing the court.

In March, 2013, the Delhi court had pulled up Tihar jail authorities for not informing the court about Chautala’s hospitalisation. Chautala was admitted to RML hospital and failed to appear for the trial in the disproportionate assets case, following which the court pulled up Tihar jail authorities for not intimating it about the development, as per the report.

The court further issued notice to the jail superintendent seeking a report on the health status of Chautala. A fresh production warrant was also issued against Chautala, by the court.

As per Quint, Chautala’s lawyer had asked for a lesser punishment on medical grounds: submitting that Chautala was partially disabled, having been infected with polio, since birth.

Centre of controversy

This isn’t Chautala’s first high-profile conviction.

In 2013, in perhaps the harshest punishment to any big-name politician by any court in the country, Chautala was convicted – along with his elder son Ajay – in the Haryana JBT (junior basic trained) teachers’ recruitment scam and sent to prison for ten years.

As chief minister in 1990, Chautala was accused of shielding senior police officer SPS. Rathore in the Ruchika Girotra molestation case. The charge was levelled against Chautala by Ruchika’s father. The girl had committed suicide later.

In 1990, Haryana’s Meham Assembly seat hit national headlines owing to large-scale violence as Chautala allegedly tried to force his victory there. The election on this seat was postponed thrice.

In fact, Chautala has been controversial even before his political career took off.

Chautala was disowned by his father Devi Lal after he was allegedly caught at the Delhi airport in 1977 while trying to smuggle wristwatches worth Rs.100,000.

His sons, Ajay Chautala and Abhay Chautala, have also been involved in their own share of controversies.

Abhay Chautala  controversially got elected as the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) president. His election led to India being suspended from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

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