Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office, on Wednesday, said that it had returned the file related to the latest parole application filed on behalf of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala to Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. It added that the L-G, in turn, rejected Mr. Chautala’s request for a parole in addition to a plea that he be transferred to a prison facility under the jurisdiction of the Haryana government.
According to a senior official privy to the development, the Delhi government, which last week had claimed that its Minister for Home Satyender Jain was ‘pressurised’ into considering the 84-year-old veteran Haryana politician’s plea by the L-G, said it had also ordered a probe to investigate similar instances in which parole had been allowed against Prison Rules.
The L-G is alleged to have ‘asked Mr. Jain to look the other way in relation to the Prison Manual’ so as to grant Mr. Chautala parole. He is currently undergoing a decade-long stint behind bars at west Delhi’s Tihar Jail after being convicted in an eponymous scandal involving the recruitment of Junior Basic Teachers (JBT) in Haryana on account of his ‘advanced age’.
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“The L-G told the Home Minister, whom he had summoned to Raj Niwas last Wednesday evening, to take into account the fact that Mr. Chautala is 84 years old and honour his parole request in addition to a plea asking to be shifted to the Central Jail in Punjab from Tihar Jail,” claimed the government official.
In response to the L-G, according to the government official, Mr. Jain argued against the move citing Prison Rules, the gravity of the charges against Mr. Chautala and the fact that the government had already rejected a similar plea on behalf of Mr. Chautala earlier this year; ‘but to no avail’.
On his part, the L-G, clarifying his decision to turn down Mr. Chautala’s parole request, said that there has to be a six month gap between each parole application. “Principal Secretary (Home) did not recommend the parole on the ground that convict had last availed one month parole in April but surrendered in June,” an official statement from L-G office read. He added that right to grant or reject parole lies with him.
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Mr. Chautala had asked for a parole from April 4 to May 4 but he extended it up to May 28 and finally surrendered on June 3. “Raj Niwas received the parole application on October 5. We rejected it as there should be a gap of minimum six months from the date of termination of last parole.”
The L-G is alleged to have ‘asked Mr. Jain to look the other way in relation to the Prison Manual’ so as to grant Mr. Chautala parole