Justice Ajit Bharihoke of the Delhi high court on Monday slated January 11 next year to hear former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala’s plea for quashing First Information Report (FIR) registered against him allegedly for owning assets exceeding his legal income.
While refusing to stop proceedings in a special CBI court, which had earlier framed charges against him in August, Justice Bharihoke decided to
hear Chautala’s plea on January 11 next year.
The court said, “It is clarified that the pendency of this petition will not come in the way of trial court to proceed with the trial,” and decided
to hear Chautala’s plea, albeit next year, ignoring CBI counsel Dayan Krishnan’s objection against the court entertaining it.
Mr Krishnan sought dismissal of Chautala’s plea saying the trial court has already framed charges against him last month and he should rather file
a fresh plea challenging the court’s order on framing of charges than seeking quashing of the FIR.
Chautala’s counsel senior advocate U.U. Lalit could not appear in the court, while his proxy counsel sought more time to file the rejoinder in the
case.
The high court earlier on May 5 had issued notice to the CBI on Chautala’s plea seeking quashing of the corruption case lodged against him.