Delhi High Court seeks govt’s response on O P Chautala’s parole plea

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday sought the response of the Delhi government on a plea of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief O.P. Chautala, who is serving a 10 year jail term in a teachers’ recruitment scam case, seeking two-month parole to look after his ailing wife.

Justice Mukta Gupta directed the authorities concerned to place within two days their status report on Mr Chautala’s plea for parole. The court listed the matter for further hearing on December 14.

Advocate Amit Sahni, appearing for former Haryana chief minister Chautala, submitted that the convict’s wife Sneh Lata was critically ill and was hospitalised at Sirsa in Haryana.

The counsel also submitted that the 78-year-old woman was being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) ward of the hospital.

The 82-year-old politician also urged the court to release him on parole on medical grounds. The petitioner informed the court that he wanted to spend time with his wife in her last days.

The plea said that the INLD leader was last granted parole earlier this year.

According to parole and furlough guidelines, the INLD leader was entitled to get parole again a minimum of six months after  after the date of termination of the previous parole.

The high court had on March 1 cancelled the parole granted to Chautala on medical grounds and asked him to “surrender forthwith”, saying he cocked a snook at the court and “misled” it by feigning illness.

The court had then said that Chautala was misusing the parole given to him and was attending public meetings.

Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and three others are serving a 10-year jail term. The Supreme Court in August 2015 had dismissed Chautalas’ appeals against the high court.