Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has been released from Tihar Jail today. Chautala was serving a 10-year jail term in a teacher recruitment scam case. The INLD leader who was out on parole reached Tihar jail earlier today and was released after completing all legal formalities. Chautala had already served nine years and nine months of his 10-year sentence and was released considering a special remission order by the Delhi government which granted a six-month reduction in sentence to those who have served nine-and-half years of their 10-year prison term. The order was passed to decongest jails given the COVID-19 pandemic.
The case is related to the illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in 2000. Chautala, 86, was jailed in 2013 and was on emergency parole since March 26, 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. In February this year, his parole was extended by the high court. Along with Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala, and 53 others, including IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar were convicted in the case.
Earlier yesterday, INLD state unit president Nafe Singh Rathi claimed that a new era is set to begin in Haryana politics with the release of Chautala.
Chautala’s lawyers had approached the Delhi High Court on multiple occasions seeking his release as he fulfilled the remission parameter. According to the lawyer, the Delhi HC had reprimanded the Delhi government for not considering his early release.
INLD at present has no representative in the Haryana assembly and the party looks to revive its fortunes with Chautala’s return.