The AAP approached the Anti-Corruption Branch against Lt. Gov. Najeeb Jung, accusing him of “misusing office” to favour former Haryana chief minister O.P. Chautala in a parole request made by him.
The L-G’s office had rubbished the allegations, claiming the charges were being made as the LG had declined a request by Delhi home minister Satyendra Jain for withdrawal of 24 cases registered against AAP leaders, including CM Arvind Kejriwal, pending in various courts.
In a letter to the ACB chief, the party claimed there were concerns about “quid pro quo in the dealings of parole of O.P. Chautala”, who has been convicted in a corruption case, and demanded a probe into the LG’s role in the matter.
“The L-G, being a constitutional position, has misused his office to provide benefit to a Sh. O.P. Chautala, in both May 2015 as well as on October 2015. There are concerns about quid pro quo in the dealings of parole of O.P. Chautala and the role of LG needs to be thoroughly probed,” the letter, signed by AAP leader Ashutosh, Delhi unit convenor Dilip Pandey and treasurer Raghav Chadha, said.
“The Hon’ble LG’s personal, rather strange, intervention in a routine matter of parole request is an attempt to provide benefit to a convict (Chautala) who has been convicted and awarded exemplary punishment on serious grounds of corruption by the judiciary,” the letter added.
Incidentally, the AAP has been highly critical of the ACB and its functioning and was even at loggerheads with Mr Jung over the appointment of Mukesh Kumar Meena as its chief.
The war of words between Mr Jung and the Aam Aadmi Party over the Chautala parole controversy had escalated on Friday.
The party has been alleging that Mr Jung was showing “undue interest” in Chautala getting parole and had also pressured Jain in this regard. To this Jung had hit back with his office saying Jain had requested him to withdraw 24 cases registered against the AAP leaders, including the CM.
Though Mr Jung’s office did not mention any second parole plea by Chautala, it claimed that the LG had come to know about it “informally” and had mentioned it during a meeting with Jain on October 21.
After Mr Jung had dismissed the charges, saying Chautala’s parole plea had been rejected on October 5, the AAP government had dared the LG to deny that the “pressure” on Jain was based on another parole plea.
Chautala, his son and three others are serving a 10-year prison term in a teacher recruitment racket case.
