Mixed response to Delhi court's verdict

Mixed response to Delhi court's verdict

The conviction of opposition leader and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Parkash Chautala and his legislator son Ajay Singh Chautala by a CBI court in New Delhi in the Junior Basic Trained (JBT) teacher recruitment scam has evoked a mixed response. Senior youth INLD leader Jatinder Balhara and former district president of the party, Dharam Pal Makdoli, said that Congress party had falsely implicated their leaders to settle political scores. 

Balhara alleged that the Congress misused power and influenced the Central Board of Investigation in framing Chautalas. Both the leaders, however, reposed faith in the judiciary and hoped that their leaders would come clean after challenging the verdict in upper courts.

On the other hand, Naveen Jaihind of Aam Aadmi Party hailed the Rohini CBI court's decision. Jaihind said that conviction of Chaultalas would strengthen the public faith in the judiciary.

Casting aspersions on the functioning of the Congress government in Haryana, he said, "recruitments done during the Hooda government were equally biased." While demanding an inquiry into all the recruitments done during the current Congress government by a retired Supreme Court judge, he claimed that a scam of much bigger level would come to fore.

Meanwhile, Haryana CPM state secretariat welcomed the Rohini CBI court's decision in the JBT recruitment scam case.

The party reiterated its demand for an effective and independent lokpal at the Centre and lokayukat in the state.

Notably, Om Prakash Chautala and his legislator son Ajay Chautala, along with 53 others, were convicted on Wednesday by a Delhi court for the illegal recruitment of over 3,000 JBT teachers in the state in year 2000, during the INLD rule. The court has fixed January 22 for pronouncing the quantum of sentence.