Court allows Abhay Chautala, accused in DA case, to travel to Pakistan

court here on Thursday allowed former Haryana chief minister OP Chautala’s son Abhay Chautala, accused in a disproportionate assets case, to travel to Lahore, Pakistan.

Special judge Arvind Kumar gave his nod for Abhay to travel from Thursday till March 19 to Lahore for a wedding on furnishing a security of ₹2 lakh, saying there was no tangible case made by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to deny him the permission.

“The present case relates to accused having possessed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. It is not the case of CBI that accused had tampered with evidence or there is a chance of accused absconding from justice,” the court said.

“The only grievance of the CBI is that the accused had filed his application at the fag end and the CBI did not get the time to verify the facts stated in the application by the accused. No tangible ground is made by the CBI for not granting the permission to go abroad,” it said.

The court while allowing Abhay’s plea also imposed conditions, including not contacting or influencing any witness and intimating the court prior to leaving and within 48 hours of return from abroad.

It also directed him to provide his travel itinerary and an attested copy of his passport and visa once he returned.

The court had on Wednesday reserved its order in the matter.

The plea was opposed by the CBI, which has lodged the DA case against Abhay, his father and INLD chief OP Chautala and brother Ajay on a complaint by Congress leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala.

Surjewala had alleged that the three accused had amassed wealth worth several times more than their income.

Objecting to Abhay’s application, CBI special public prosecutor Ajay Gupta had questioned the timing of the petition, “Why is the plea filed at the 11th hour? They are not seeking permission, they are informing the court about travel.”

NEWDELHI:A