Om Prakash Chautala

For campaigning in elections while being out on bail for medical reasons

This Tuesday, Panchkula in
Haryana witnessed a massive
traffic jam thanks to an event
undertaken by Indian National
Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om
Prakash Chautala to campaign
for his party’s candidate.

Nothing out of the ordinary
about it, except that he should
have been in jail serving a
10-year sentence awarded in
January 2013 for a corruption
case. Since May this year
Chautala has been out on bail,
citing a surgery to implant a
pacemaker. After the court got
wind of his political activities,
it decided to set up a medical
board to investigate whether
he needed hospitalisation. At
that point he promised to
surrender and return to
prison.

He was given time till
17 October to do so but is now
using that leeway to continue
campaigning for his party.
Following a rap on its knuckles
by the Delhi High Court,
the CBI is now asking for
immediate cancellation of his
bail, but what is remarkable is
the ease with which Chautala
has managed to stay out of
prison up to the point that
polls are upon us. It is a
shame that politicians like
him remain unfazed by the
law. His grandson, a leader of
the party, even told a
newspaper that though
Chautala cannot be an MLA,
nothing prevents him from
becoming Chief Minister!

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