DA case: Court allows ex-Haryana CM's son to travel to Pakistan

New Delhi: A 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 in Pakistan.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar gave his nod to Abhay to travel from Thursday till March 19 to Lahore for a wedding on furnishing a security of Rs 2 lakh, saying there was no tangible ground made by the 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 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 after Abhay's counsel Harsk K Sharma submitted an application before the special judge seeking permission for the accused to travel to Lahore.

The plea was opposed by the CBI, which had lodged the DA case against Abhay, his father and INLD chief O P Chautala and brother Ajay on the complaint of 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 said there was an inexplicable delay in filing this plea as he made the request only on Thursday for travelling to the "enemy country" on Friday.