Chautala denies statement on commissions in Meham case

NEW DELHI, March 29: Former Haryana Chief Minister and Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) leader Om Prakash Chautala has denied before Delhi High Court that he ever made any statement regarding appointment of retired judges as head of commissions. In an affidavit filed before the HC recently, Chautala also denied press reports quoting him saying that the Congress appointed retired judges as heads of such commissions and got reports in its favour by offering them lucrative assignments. He said, “The press report attributing the words to me which bring the commission to disrepute is denied as the same is misquoted and misleading.”

The affidavit

was filed in pursuance of a petition filed by environmental and legal activist B L Wadehra urging the court to take cognizance of the offence against Chautala under sub-section 1 of section 10a of the Commission of Inquiries Act, 1952. The report said that the HLD leader dubbed the Saikia Commission report as “baseless and biased”. Saying that the Congress was usingcommissions to harass the opposition, Chautala had, in a meeting on February 12, 1995, announced that if his party was voted to power, he would appoint a commission headed by a sitting judge to inquire into the murder of Amir Singh ….”

The Saikia Commission of inquiry had been set up to probe the circumstances leading to the killing of Amir Singh, an Independent candidate for the Meham assembly seat for which Chautala was also a nominee.