Delhi HC extends former Haryana CM Chautala's interim bail

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday extended till 10 July the interim bail granted to former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, serving a 10-year jail term in teachers recruitment case. The court extended on medical grounds the three week long interim bail granted to 79-year-old Chautala on 3 June for carrying out the post-cremation rituals of his younger brother Pratap Singh, who died on 1 June. [caption id=“attachment_1584847” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala had been convicted in the teachers’ recruitment scam. AFP[/caption] A vacation bench of justice Pratibha Rani directed Chautala to surrender on 11 July. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader’s interim bail has been extended by the court on the same terms and conditions as in the 3 June order after perusing the status report submitted by CBI and after hearing arguments by advocates RK Anand and Amit Sahni on behalf of Chautala. CBI, in its status report, has said that Chautala is admitted in the ICU of Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon and that he needs to undergo some tests on 4 July with respect to his pacemaker. Chautala had sought extension of his bail by four weeks on the ground that he is currently admitted in the ICU of Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon and if allowed by the doctors, he would also like to attend the remaining post-cremation rites of his brother. The court had set Chautala free on interim bail for 21 days while asking him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh with two sureties of the like amount. Earlier on 30 May, the high court had issued notice to CBI seeking its reply by 11 July on Chautala’s plea for regular bail citing ill health. In his regular bail plea, Chautala had contended that he is a physically disabled senior citizen having 60 per cent permanent disability. He had contended in his plea that he is suffering from diabetes as well as chronic obstructive airway disease and is prone to both respiratory and cardiac ailments. On 22 January, 2013, a special CBI court had sentenced Ajay Chautala, Om Prakash Chautala and eight others, including Vidya Dhar and Badshami, to 10 years jail term for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior teachers in 2000. Among other convicts in the junior basic trained (JBT) teachers’ recruitment scam case, 44 have been sentenced to four years in jail and one to five-year jail term. All of them were held guilty of cheating, forgery, using fake documents as genuine, conspiracy under IPC and for abusing their official position under Prevention of Corruption Act. PTI