M A I N   N E W S

Assets case
SC nod to prosecution of Chautala brothers
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 4
The Supreme Court today dismissed the petitions filed by Chautala brothers Ajay and Abhay challenging corruption charges against them. The apex court has thus cleared the way for the criminal prosecution of the Indian National Lok Dal leaders in disproportionate assets cases filed against them by the CBI.

A Bench of Justices VS Sirpurkar and TS Thakur ruled that there was no need to obtain the approval of any authority to proceed against the sons of Haryana’s former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala despite the fact that they were holding public offices as MLA and MP at the time of taking cognizance of the chargesheets against them.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court was “absolutely right” in rejecting the brothers’ petitions and holding that they had allegedly abused “entirely different office or offices than the one which they were holding on the date on which cognizance was taken and therefore there was no necessity of sanction” under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), the Supreme Court held.

The apex court noted it was at its instance that the CBI investigated the alleged involvement of OP Chautala and his family members in the JBT teachers’ recruitment scam. The offences were registered on May 24, 2004.

“The CBI conducted searches and seized incriminating documents which revealed that Shri OP Chautala and his family had acquired movable and immovable properties valued at Rs 1,467 crore,” the court noted.

On February 2, 2010, the trial court had rejected their contentions that prior approval from the relevant authority was necessary to prosecute them. The Special Judge had held that they were not being prosecuted for abuse of their current office and, therefore, no sanction was necessary.