Following a tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party government and Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung over grant of parole to him, former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has moved the Delhi High Court seeking 60 days' parole to get medical treatment for his polio-afflicted legs.
Chautala, convicted and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in the teachers' recruitment scam case, had lost his appeal in the Supreme Court on August 3. However, the apex court had said that convicts in the case could move the High Court for relief like parole on health grounds.
Delhi Home Minister Satyendra Jain had advised rejection of Chautala’s application requesting extension of his parole in May this year. Another request for parole to the incarcerated Haryana politician was turned down in September, after which he filed a fresh application on medical grounds in October.
The Delhi government has accused the L-G of putting pressure on Mr. Jain for giving clearance to Chautala's parole application. The ruling AAP has also filed a formal complaint with the Anti-Corruption Branch against the L-G, alleging that he was showing “undue interest” in the matter and trying to shield Chautala.
The AAP leaders have claimed in their complaint that Mr. Jung had exercised pressure on the Home Minister asking him to grant parole to Chautala despite the Delhi government’s strong objection to any parole request. .
Eighty-four-year-old Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and three others are serving the 10-year jail term in Tihar Central Jail here.
Chautala’s petition in the High Court, filed earlier this week, said the Delhi government's Home Department had informed him that his plea for parole was dismissed, keeping in mind the 2010 parole guidelines, as per which there should be a gap of a minimum of six months from the date of termination of the last parole.
“The petitioner is polio-afflicted since his birth and has permanent disability of 60 per cent. He was on bail during the trial and was released on parole, but he has never misused the same,” stated the petition. It said the period of six months since his last parole in May would expire on November 28 and sought the court’s lenient view in the matter.
The plea is likely to come up for hearing before the High Court next week.
Chautala, his son and 53 others, including two IAS officers, were convicted on January 16, 2013, by the trial court for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior basic trained teachers in Haryana in 2000. The High Court upheld the jail term while observing that the overwhelming evidence had shown “shocking and spine-chilling state of affairs” in the country.
