Chautala, son and 53 others convicted in recruitment scam

Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, his MLA son Ajay Chautala and 53 others, including two IAS officers, were on Wednesday convicted on corruption and other charges by a Delhi court for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior teachers 12 years back, and sent to Tihar Jail.

78-year-old senior Chautala, the chief of Indian National Lok Dal, was held as the "main conspirator" by Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar in his 308-page verdict.

The court will hear arguments on quantum of sentence on January 17, 19 and 21 and pronounce the punishment on January 22.

The father-son duo along with others were convicted for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior basic trained (JBT) teachers in the state in the year 2000.

The court said, "All the accused are held guilty for the offences of cheating, forgery, using fake documents as genuine, conspiracy under the IPC and for abusing their official position under the Prevention of Corruption Act."

While holding that under Chautala, the state government officials were "executing this scam", the court said, "There is a complete chain of circumstances which pinned down accused Om Prakash Chautala as the main conspirator."

As per Section 8 of the Representation of People Act, a candidate is disqualified and debarred from contesting polls if convicted and handed a prison sentence of two years or more. The ban would remain in force from date of conviction to six years after release from prison.

Among the 55 convicted are the then Director of Primary Education Sanjiv Kumar, Chautala's former Officer on Special Duty Vidya Dhar, both IAS officers, political advisor to the then Haryana CM Sher Singh Badshami and 16 women officials. The court relied on the testimony of Sanjiv Kumar who initially was a whistle blower but in the CBI probe that followed he was also found to be involved in the scam.