Graft case against Chautala brothers stayed

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court on Friday ordered interim stay on the trial court proceedings against Abhay Chautala and Ajay Chautala - sons of Haryana’s former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala - for possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

A bench of Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Justice Cyriac Joseph also sought the response of the Central Bureau of Investigation on the brothers’ plea for the stay of the trial against them.

Abhay Chautala, a sitting member of Haryana assembly, had challenged the initiation of the case against him on the grounds that the investigating agency could not initiate such proceedings without taking prior sanction of the assembly speaker.

The case of disproportionate assets against him deals with the period when he was the member of state assembly from June 2000 to March 2005.

The court was told that Abhay Chautala was a legislator during the period pertaining to the case and even today he is a member of the assembly. It was contended that under the Prevention of Corruption Act, no proceedings against him could be initiated without the assembly speaker’s sanction.

The CBI, in its charge-sheet filed Feb 2 this year, accused Abhay Chautala of having assets worthy Rs.8 crore, and another about Rs.125 crore in the name of Chaudhary Devi Lal Memorial Trust and other multiple societies, his counsel Dr. Sushil said.

The counsel said that all the properties that are owned by the Trust and other societies have been shown to belonging to Abhay Chautala.

Ajay Chautala has been charged with amassing wealth to the tune of about Rs.27 crore beyond his known sources of income.