He cleared his Class 10 and Class 12 exams at the age of 87. A string of cases/allegations against him, including being an accessory to the murder of his rival, Om Prakash Chautala’s life resembles more of a ‘Bollywood’ antagonist than the former chief minister of Haryana.
Once one of the ‘most Googled leaders of Haryana’, the INLD chief was on Friday sentenced to four years in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 50 lakh in connection with a disproportionate assets case, in which he was convicted earlier. But that’s not all, as Chautala was also convicted in the JBT scam in January 2013.
As the leader’s punishment makes news, we take a look at some interesting details from Chautala’s life. Dive in:
Political Journey
He was the Chief Minister of Haryana five times between 1989 to 2005. His grandson Dushyant Chautala is currently the Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana. But OP’s ‘terms’ have been varied and never consistent, ranging from five days to five years, with a five-month debut in between these two extremes, according to reports. He has also served as an MLA seven times.
Chautala is the son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal. Despite his political achievements, Chautala was never able to match his father Devi Lal’s heights at the state and national levels.
The leader has been accused of protecting senior police officer SPS Rathore in the Ruchika Girotra molestation case when he was chief minister in 1990. Ruchika’s father made the accusation against Chautala. Later, the girl died by suicide.
And in 1990, large-scale violence in Haryana’s Meham Assembly seat made national headlines when Chautala allegedly tried to push his victory there. The election was postponed three times.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Chautala’s father, Devi Lal, disowned him after he was allegedly caught trying to smuggle wristwatches worth Rs. 100,000 through the Delhi airport in 1977.
Ajay Chautala and Abhay Chautala, his sons, have also been embroiled in a number of controversies.
What is the current case against him?
The court had last week convicted Chautala and said the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such dis-proportionality by proving his source of income or means by way of which, he acquired assets during this period. The CBI had filed the case in 2005, and a charge sheet was filed on March 26, 2010, accusing him of amassing assets disproportionate to his legitimate income, between 1993 and 2006.
According to the CBI’s FIR Om Prakash Chautala, while functioning as Chief Minister of Haryana during the period 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 lawful sources of income, in his name, in the names of his family members. The disproportionate assets were calculated to be Rs 6.09 crore, 189.11 per cent of his known sources of income.
Recruitment scam
OP Chautala and 53 others were charged in June 2008 in connection with the appointment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in Haryana between 1999 and 2000. A Delhi court sentenced Chautala and his son Ajay Singh Chautala to ten years in prison in January 2013 for violating provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Chautala was convicted of illegally hiring over 3,000 inexperienced instructors. The Supreme Court ordered a CBI inquiry when former director of elementary education Sanjeev Kumar, an IAS officer from the 1989 batch, filed a writ petition.
He was released from Tihar jail on July 2 last year after serving his sentence.
‘Never Too Late to Learn’
The former CM Chautala had also recently cleared his Class 10 and 12 exams at the age of 87.
In 2021, Chautala had appeared for Class 12 exams under the Haryana Open Board. However, his result was withheld because he had not yet passed a Class 10 English exam. In order to get his Class 12 result released, he appeared for the Class 10 exam.
He scored 88 marks out of 100 in the English paper in his Class 10 examination last year.
Except English, he had cleared his Class 10 exams from the National Institute of Open School in 2017 while serving a 10-year sentence in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in connection with a teachers’ recruitment scam.
At an examination centre, Chautala had refused to speak to the media, saying “I am a student.”
On Twitter, Abhishek Bachchan and Nimrat Kaur, who recently starred in the film ‘Dasvi,’ about a politician who sits for Class 10 exams from jail, congratulated him.
‘Most Googled Leader’
Google made a statement in October 2014 (a day before Haryana’s assembly elections) saying, “Leader of the Indian National Lokdal (INLD) Om Prakash Chautala emerged as the most searched leaders in Haryana,” said a report by the Indian Express.
Gopal Kanda, a former Independent MLA from Sirsa who was close to Chautala’s sons Abhay and Ajay, was the second most sought-after political figure, trailing only Congress leader and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda.
Read all the Latest Explainers here
Comments
0 comment