Court upholds Chautala's plea for attendant

See also: Meet the controversial Mr Chautala

A court in New Delhi on Wednesday upheld the plea of former Haryana chief minister OP Chautala, awarded 10 years jail in a teachers recruitment scam and is currently hospitalised, for a private attendant.

Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar allowed Chautala's plea seeking personal help to look after him in the hospital and asked CBI to first verify the private attendant's identity.

CBI prosecutor AP Singh said "the court has not given a blanket permission" and it has written to the Medical Superintendent of GB Pant Hospital, where Chautala is hospitalised, to ascertain if such a arrangement is possible.

He also said CBI would first verify the identity of the male attendant and added that while Chautala had asked for two helps, the court has permitted only one.

The 78-year-old Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader is undergoing treatment at GB Pant hospital after complaints of chest pain.

The court had yesterday sentenced him, his son Ajay Chautala and eight others to ten years imprisonment after finding them guilty of being involved in illegally recruiting 3,206 junior basic trained teachers in the state in 1999-2000.

The five-time Haryana chief minister was held as the "main conspirator" by the court while convicting him on January 16.