Delhi court issues bailable warrant against Abhay Singh Chautala in assets case

A Delhi court today issued a bailable warrant against Haryana MLA Abhay Singh Chautala for failing to appear before it in a disproportionate assets case.

Special CBI judge PS Teji directed Chautala, an Indian National Lok Dal MLA, to appear before the court on February 22.
   
The court took the coercive action against Chautala after CBI prosecutor AK Dutt submitted that summons issued against the leader could not be served despite their efforts.

The court had on February 2 issued summons against Chautala and his brother Ajay Chautala and others after taking cognisance on the chargesheet filed by the CBI in the case.
 
Meanwhile, Haryana MLA Ajay Chautala and co-accused Chetram, Om Prakash, Abhimanyu Singh, Rajender Kumar and Netram, who appeared before the court, were granted interim bail in the case.
   
The court posted the matter for February 22 for further proceedings.
   
The CBI had on December 24 filed a chargesheet against the two sons of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala in the case.

According to the chargesheet filed against Ajay, CBI claimed he was in possession of assets to the tune of Rs 27.74 crore --339 per cent more than his income Rs 8.17 crore during the period of 1993 to 2006.
    
The second chargesheet was filed against Abhay alleging his assets were 522 per cent more than his income of Rs 22.89 crore as per Income Tax records during the check period of 2000 to 2005. The agency claimed to have found Rs 119.69 crore worth of assets.

CBI had also named former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala as accused in the FIR but could not file the chargesheet against him in absence of the mandatory sanction.

The probe agency had registered a case in a designated court here in April 2006 and searched 24 premises of the Chautalas in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Chandigarh during which it had seized cash of Rs 13 lakh and froze five bank accounts containing Rs 1.34 crore belonging to Chautala and his family members.
        
The investigating agency's FIR listed the moveble and immovable properties belonging to either Chautala or his family members that had been acquired between July 1999 and March 2005.
        
The FIR alleged Chautala and his family members had plots at prime locations in Gurgaon in Haryana, Karol Bagh in Delhi, Manali in Himachal Pradesh, Nainital in Uttarakhand and Chandigarh besides a hotel and a restaurant in upmarket Karol Bagh, a shopping mall, six plots of agricultural land, six farm houses and cash and jewellery worth Rs 50 crore.