Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: August 4, 2022 at 20:34 IST
Om Prakash Chautala was awarded a four-year sentence by the Delhi High Court, but it has been suspended during the pendency of his appeal challenging the trial court’s order convicting him in a case involving disproportionate assets.
The sentence was suspended and Chautala (88) was given bail by Justice Yogesh Khanna on Monday, saying its subject to the payment of a fine of Rs 50 lakh imposed by the trial court must be paid. Justice Khanna further ordered him to execute a personal bond for Rs. 5 lakh with a single surety for the same amount.
The court took note that Chautala had been imprisoned for around 1.5 years and that it would be some time before the appeal could be heard.
On May 27, Chautala was found guilty of obtaining disproportionate assets between 1993 and 2006 and given a four-year jail term as well as a fine of Rs 50 lakh by Special Judge Vikas Dhull. The trial court further directed his four properties to be confiscated by the directed authorities.
In finding Chautala guilty, the court noted that the defendant had not adequately explained up such “disproportionality” by proving his sources of income or means of asset acquisition during that time.
Due to the fact that the trial and conviction were based on two different quantum of disproportionate assets, Chautala had contested the trial court’s order.
On March 26, 2010, a chargesheet accusing him of accumulating assets out of proportion to his legitimate sources of income was submitted, accusing him of having the case brought against him by the CBI in 2005.
The CBI claims that Chautala amassed movable and immovable properties in his name and the names of his family members that were out of proportion to his known sources of income while serving as the Haryana chief minister from July 24, 1999, to March 5, 2005.