M A I N   N E W S

Chautala flies to USA
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 6
A day after he threatened to take to streets in protest against the removal of the name of his father from that of the Panipat thermal plant, former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala flew out of the country.

Mr Chautala and his party, the Indian National Lok Dal, had organised a protest rally at Panipat on March 3, at which he had issued the threat. He had also stated that he would attend the forthcoming Budget session of the Haryana Assembly. In the past one year, Mr Chautala has not attended even a single sitting of the House as he is not keeping good health.

The same day news came that the Centre had given its consent to the CBI inquiry into the charge-sheet submitted by the Congress against the Chautalas to the Haryana Governor, alleging amassing of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

According to informed sources, Mr Chautala along with his younger son, Abhay, left India on the night of March 4 and March 5. The sources say the two took a British Airways flight(no. 142) to London, from where they boarded a flight to Seattle in the USA. Earlier an attendant was also to go with them but later his ticket was cancelled.

While sources in the INLD say Mr Chautala has gone to the USA for medical treatment, Congress men are seeing more to his foreign visit.

The Congress MLA from Palwal, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, who had been in the forefront for five years in “exposing” the Chautalas when they were in power, alleged here today that the former Chief Minister and his son had flown out of the country to destroy evidence of their investment abroad in view of the CBI inquiry against them.

He said he and the senior Haryana Congress leader, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, who headed the committee which framed the charge-sheet, had been demanding that the passports of the Chautalas and their close associates should be confiscated otherwise they would flee the country to escape justice.