CBI to probe four more Chautala cases

After repeated prodding by the Bhupinder Hooda-led Haryana government, the Centre has referred four more corruption cases involving former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala to the CBI, report Manish Tiwari & Hitender Rao.

After repeated prodding by the Bhupinder Hooda-led Haryana government, the Centre has referred four more corruption cases involving former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala to the CBI.

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Though the Haryana government wants all the cases to be investigated, sources said, the agency as of now will only be taking up the one relating to alleged kickbacks during the setting of the Tau Devi Lal thermal power plant at Panipat.

The CBI has already investigated two corruption cases against Chautala and his sons. In the first, a disproportionate assets case, chargesheets having already been filed. The second relates to the appointment of junior teachers in the state in 1999-2000 when Chautala was chief minister.

The four fresh cases were first referred to the Centre for a CBI probe in April 2008. Initially the Centre did not seem inclined to agree with the state government.

But with Chautala’s party performing far better than expected in the last Haryana assembly election, the Hooda government — which barely managed to retain power — seems to have stepped up the pressure on the Centre to bring in the CBI to corner Chautala.