Delhi HC directs Chautala to appear before it Friday

The Delhi High Court directed former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala to appear before it on Friday after the CBI moved the court charging him with violating the bail conditions.

Justice Siddharth Mridul Thursday issued notice to Chautala, who is also the Indian National Lok Dal chief, for his personal appearance in the court as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought cancellation of his bail and bringing forward his surrender date, which was earlier fixed for Oct 17.

"I am painfully aware of that (violation). There is abuse of judiciary," said the court after it was informed that Chautala, who was granted bail on medical grounds, has been actively holding rallies to campaign for the Oct 15 assembly elections in Haryana.

Chautala has been campaigning for the upcoming state assembly elections without the court's consent and has misused the bail granted by it, CBI counsel Rajdeep Behura told the court.

She added that Chautala is mocking the court by holding rallies where he says that "nobody can touch me".

"This is a 'catch me if you can' situation," Behura told the court, and asked it to issue a warrant of arrest against Chautala for violating the conditions of interim bail.

To this, the court asked CBI that it "should have informed the court earlier about the violation by Chautala and it could have taken remedial steps then".

Chautala has been out on bail after being sentenced to 10 years in prison in the teachers' recruitment scam case.

On Sep 26, the high court cancelled the interim bail granted to Chautala on medical ground and asked him to surrender Oct 17.

The CBI, pleading for cancellation of his bail, asked the court to advance the date of his surrender immediately.

Chautala was first granted interim bail May 21, 2013, and has been getting extension of bail on the ground that he was currently admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon due to poor health.

However, out of prison on bail, the INLD chief has been addressing political rallies in various parts of Haryana.

A special CBI court here Jan 22, 2013, sentenced Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and eight others to 10 years in jail.

One of the convicts was sentenced to five years in jail, while 45 others were each handed out four-year jail term in the case.

The Chautalas and the other accused were found guilty of illegally recruiting 3,206 junior basic trained teachers in Haryana in 2000 when Om Prakash Chautala was the chief minister.