Court summons former Haryana CM in teacher's scam

A city court on Wednesday issued fresh summons to former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala after taking cognizance of a charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against him in a teachers' recruitment scam of 2003.

The charge sheet also names his son and former parliamentarian Ajay Chautala, two Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers and 56 others who were granted bail by the court, reports IANS.

According to CBI, the accused persons used forged documents to appoint 3,206 junior basic trained teachers after taking hefty amounts from them, which could collectively run into millions of rupees.

CBI Special Judge RK Yadav issued summons for September 5 for the former Chief Minister, who failed to appear before it on Wednesday.

However, it allowed the plea of Ajay Chautala, who has gone abroad, and another accused Daya Saini seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case.

The court, however, issued bailable warrant against another accused who did not appear despite being served with the court's summons.

Sanjiv Kumar, a self-proclaimed whistle-blower who was then the Director of Primary Education Department, and Chautala's former officer on special duty Vidya Dhar are the two IAS officers named in the charge sheet, which was filed on June 6.

The CBI alleged that the appointments were made on the basis of a second set of final interview list prepared at the behest of Om Prakash Chautala, leader of the Indian National Lok Dal, his son Ajay Chautala, Vidya Dhar, political advisor Sher Singh Badsami and Sanjiv Kumar, who had played an active role in the process.

The case was registered on the basis of the Supreme Court's order of November 2003. Originally, a preliminary inquiry was registered by the investigating agency, which was later converted into a regular case in May 2004.

The CBI subsequently also registered a case of acquiring assets disproportionate to known sources of income against Chautala and conducted searches at a number of places in Delhi and Haryana.