A major confrontation has erupted once again between Raj Niwas and Players Building on the issue of granting parole to former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, who is lodged in Tihar in connection with the JBT education recruitment scam.
The Delhi Government has rejected parole plea moved by Chautala that he be shifted to Punjab Jail from Tihar Jail. The lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung was in the favour of granting parole to Chautala on medical grounds and age factor. Even Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday tweeted: “Why is lieutenant Governor interested in ChautalaIJ”
“The Delhi Government has rejected parole request moved by Chautala. The Government has also rejected Chautala’s request to shift him from Tihar jail to Punjab jail,” sources said. The 80-year-old politician, who had been sentenced to 10-year imprisonment, had requested the lieutenant Governor that he be granted parole as he was not keeping well.
Sources said that Jung had recently called a meeting with city Home Minister Satyendra Jain to discuss the issue of parole and expressed his anger for not sending him files related to Chautala’s parole about two months ago. The lieutenant Governor is said to have asked Delhi Government to allow Chautala to Punjab Prison which it again refused to do.
There is a strong view in the Government that no leniency should be granted to Chautala as he was involved in a very serious offence. A section within the AAP administration is of the view that it should follow only the directions of the court in the matter. “If the court tells us that the Chautala should be granted parole, we will immediately follow it,” a senior officer said.
Rules suggest that a convict can be granted parole if he has served at least one year in prison, excluding any period covered by remission only after dismissal of appeal in the high court. The convict can be released on parole if a minimum of six months have elapsed from the date of termination of his or her previous parole, except special circumstances. The main criteria for granting parole is that the conduct of the convict has to be satisfactory during the last one year.
The former Haryana Chief Minister had surrendered at Tihar Jail on October 11 last year after the high court had cancelled his bail for flouting bail conditions by campaigning for his Indian National lok Dal party.
Earlier in April this year, the lieutenant Governor had reportedly granted one month parole to Chautala to prepare his appeal against the High Court’s March 5 judgement, upholding the conviction and 10 years sentence awarded to him by a trial court in the case.
Besides Chautala, the court had upheld the conviction and 10-year jail term of four others -- his son Ajay Chautala, whistleblower IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar, IAS officer Vidya Dhar, then officer on special duty (OSD) to the Chief Minister and Sher Singh Badshami, then MlA and political adviser to Chautala senior.
The court had, however, modified the trial court order on the quantum of sentence and awarded two-year jail term to 50 other convicts in the case. Chautala, his son and eight others, including Vidya Dhar and Badshami, had been awarded 10 years jail term by the trial court for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior teachers in the year 2000.