Assets case: Delhi HC suspends Om Prakash Chautala's sentence, grants bail

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 3

The Delhi High Court has suspended the four-year sentence awarded to former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala during the pendency of his appeal challenging a trial court’s order convicting him in a disproportionate assets case.

Justice Yogesh Khanna, who reserved the order on Monday, suspended the sentence and granted bail to Chautala (88), saying it’s subject to the payment of a fine of Rs 50 lakh imposed by the trial court. He would also have to execute a personal bond for Rs 5 lakh with one surety of the like amount, Justice Khanna ordered.

The court took note of the fact that Chautala spent about 1.5 years in custody and it would take time for the appeal to be taken up for hearing.

On May 27, Special Judge Vikas Dhull had convicted Chautala and sentenced him to four-year jail, besides imposing a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the convict in the case of acquiring disproportionate assets between 1993 and 2006. The trial court also directed the authorities concerned to confiscate his four properties.

Convicting Chautala, it said the accused failed to satisfactorily account for such “disproportionality” by proving his sources of income or means by which he acquired assets during that period.

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

The CBI had filed the case in 2005 and a chargesheet was filed on March 26, 2010, accusing him of amassing assets disproportionate to his legitimate sources of income.

According to the CBI, Chautala, while being the Haryana CM 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 sources of income, in his name and in the names of his family members.

To pay fine imposed by trial court

• The court took note of the fact that Chautala has spent about 1.5 years in custody and it will take time for the appeal to be taken up for hearing
• Granting bail to Chautala, it said the order was subject to the payment of a fine of Rs 50 lakh imposed by the trial court
• He would also have to execute a personal bond for Rs 5 lakh with one surety of the like amount

(With PTI inputs)

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