Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala was released from Tihar Jail on Friday after completing due formalities. The 86-year-old Chautala was serving a 10-year prison term in the 2013 teacher recruitment scam case.
According to officials, Chautala, who was already out on parole, reached Tihar Jail on Friday to complete formalities after which he was released from prison. “After necessary formalities, Chautala has been released,” said Sandeep Goel, the Director-General of Prison.
Last month, the Delhi Government had passed an order granting a six-month special remission to those who have served nine-and-half-years of their 10-year prison sentence to decongest jails in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to officials, since Chautala has already served nine years and nine months of his sentence, he was eligible to get out of prison.
Chautala was on emergency parole since March 26, 2020, due to the pandemic and was scheduled to surrender on February 21 this year. However, his parole had been extended by the High Court, a senior jail official had said earlier.
As on February 21, he had two months and 27 days of jail time left which has been counted as remitted.
OP Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala, and 53 others, including IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar, were convicted and sentenced in the case of illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in 2000.
They all were sentenced to varying jail terms in the case by a special CBI court in January 2013.