Om Prakash Chautala moves High Court for extension of interim bail

Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, serving a 10-year jail term in the teachers recruitment case, on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking extension of the interim bail granted to him for carrying out post-cremation rituals of his brother who died on June 1.

This was mentioned before a bench of justices S Mridul and Sunita Gupta which agreed to hear the matter which is likely to come up on June 20. 

The matter was mentioned before the court by advocates R K Anand and Amit Sahni. Chautala has sought extension of his bail by four weeks on the ground that he is currently admitted in the ICU of Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon due to bad health and if allowed by the doctors, he would like to attend the remaining post-cremation rites of his brother Pratap Singh.

Meanwhile, another bench of the high court today extended the interim bail of three others who were convicted and sentenced to varying jail terms along with Chautala in the teacher recruitment case. The court extended the bail of Krishna Gupta, Narain Singh and Harbans Lal till July 4, the next date of hearing. It however, denied such a relief to two others - Durga Dutt Pradhan and Darshan Dayal Verma - who were asked to surrender in Tihar Jail by June 30.

The high court on June 3 had granted three weeks' interim bail to Chautala for carrying out the post-cremation rituals. 79-year-old Chautala was set free by the court on interim bail for 21 days while asking him to furnish a personal bond of Rs five lakh with two sureties of the like amount.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader has sought extension of bail by another four weeks on the same terms and conditions as given in the June 3 order.