OP Chautala's parole plea: HC seeks Delhi govt's response

The 82-year-old politician also urged the court to release him on parole on medical grounds.

New Delhi, Dec 11: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the response of the AAP government on a plea of INLD chief O P Chautala, who is serving a ten year jail term in a teachers' recruitment scam case, seeking two-month parole to look after his ailing wife.

Justice Mukta Gupta directed the authorities concerned to place within two days their status report on Chautala's plea for parole. The court listed the matter for further hearing on December 14. Advocate Amit Sahni, appearing for former Haryana chief minister Chautala, submitted that the convict's wife Sneh Lata is critically ill and is hospitalised at Sirsa in Haryana.

The counsel submitted that the 78-year-old wife of Chautala is in the intensive care unit (ICU) in the hospital. The 82-year-old politician also urged the court to release him on parole on medical grounds. The petitioner informed the court that he wanted to spend time with his wife in the last days. The plea said the leader was last granted parole earlier this year and he was entitled to get parole as per parole and furlough guidelines, which stipulates that a minimum of six months should elapse after the date of termination of the previous parole.

The high court had on March 1 cancelled the parole granted to Chautala on medical grounds and asked him to "surrender forthwith", saying he cocked a snook at the court and "misled" it by feigning illness. It had then said that Chautala was misusing his parole to attend public meetings.

Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and three others are serving 10-year jail term in the case. The Supreme Court in August 2015 had dismissed Chautalas' appeals against the high court verdict upholding their conviction and sentence of 10 years awarded by a trial court in the junior basic trained teachers recruitment scam case.

The high court had on March 5, 2015 upheld the 10-year jail terms awarded to the two Chautalas and three others, saying "the overwhelming evidence showed spine-chilling state of affairs in the country." The father-son duo and 53 others, including two IAS officers, were among 55 persons convicted on January 16, 2013 by the trial court for illegally recruiting 3,206 JBT teachers in Haryana in 2000.

PTI