Warrant against Abhay Chautala in assets case

A Delhi Court on Monday issued bailable warrant against Haryana MLA Abhay Singh Chautala for failing to appear before it in a disproportionate assets case. Special CBI Judge P.S. Teji directed Chautala, an Indian National Lok Dal MLA, to appear before the court on February 22.

A Delhi Court on Monday issued bailable warrant against Haryana MLA Abhay Singh Chautala for failing to appear before it in a disproportionate assets case. Special CBI Judge P.S. Teji directed Chautala, an Indian National Lok Dal MLA, to appear before the court on February 22.

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The court issued the warrant after CBI prosecutor A.K. Dutt submitted that summons issued against the leader could not be served despite their efforts.

The court had on February 2 issued summons against Chautala and his brother Ajay Chautala and others after taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the CBI.

Meanwhile, Haryana MLA Ajay Chautala and co-accused Chetram, Om Prakash, Abhimanyu Singh, Rajender Kumar and Netram, who appeared before the court, were granted interim bail in the case.

The next hearing has been scheduled for February 22. On December 24, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s two sons in the case.

According to the chargesheet filed against Ajay, the CBI claimed he was in possession of assets to the tune of Rs 27.74 crore—339 per cent more than his income Rs 8.17 crore during the period of 1993-2006.

The second chargesheet was filed against Abhay Chautala alleging that his assets were 522 per cent more than his income of Rs 22.89 crore as per the Income Tax records during the check period of 2000 to 2005. The agency claimed to have found assets worth Rs 119.69 crore in his name.

The CBI had also named former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala as an accused in the FIR but could not file a chargesheet against him in the absence of the mandatory sanction.

The investigating agency had registered a case in a designated court here in April 2006 and had searched 24 premises of the Chautalas in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Chandigarh during which it had seized cash worth Rs 13 lakh. It had also frozen five bank accounts containing Rs 1.34 crore belonging to Chautala and his family.

The FIR alleged that Chautala and his family owned plots at prime locations in Gurgaon, Karol Bagh in Delhi, Manali in Himachal Pradesh, Nainital in Uttarakhand and Chandigarh besides a hotel and a restaurant in upmarket Karol Bagh, a shopping mall, six plots of agricultural land, six farm houses and cash and jewellery worth Rs 50 crore.