Assets case: Delhi HC reserves order on OP Chautala’s plea for suspension of sentence

New Delhi, August 1

The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala’s petition seeking suspension of the four-year sentence awarded to him in a disproportionate assets (DA) case.

Justice Yogesh Khanna reserved the order after hearing arguments from senior advocate N Hariharan for Chautala and advocate Anupam Sharma, representing the CBI, who opposed Chautala’s plea for suspension of sentence.

The Delhi High Court had on July 7 issued notice to CBI on Chautala’s petition challenging his conviction and four-year imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case and seeking suspension of sentence.

On May 27, Special Judge Vikas Dhull had convicted Chautala and awarded a four-year jail term to him while also imposing a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the convict in the case of acquiring disproportionate assets from 1993 to 2006.

The trial court had also directed the authorities concerned to confiscate four of his properties.

While convicting Chautala, it had said the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such dis-proportionality by proving his source of income or means by which he acquired assets during this period.

Chautala has challenged the trial court order on the ground that the trial and the conviction were based on two different quantums of disproportionate assets.

“If the case is of X amount, trial is for X amount, questions are put for X amount, you can’t convict for a Y amount,” Nandrajog said, contending that the trial court delivered the verdict without deciding the objections raised by the defence during trial.

The CBI had filed the case in 2005, and a charge sheet was filed on March 26, 2010, accusing him of amassing assets disproportionate to his legitimate income, between 1993 and 2006.

According to the CBI’s, Chautala, while functioning as chief minister of Haryana during the period from July 24, 1999, to March 5, 2005, in collusion with his family members and others, accumulated assets, immovable and movable, disproportionate to his known lawful sources of income, in his name and in the names of his family members.(With PTI inputs)