Om Prakash Chautala, Five-time Haryana Chief Minister and INLD Leader, Dies at 89
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Chandigarh, Dec 20 (NationPress) Om Prakash Chautala, who served as the Chief Minister of Haryana on five occasions and was the head of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), has died at the age of 89 following a cardiac arrest at his home in Gurugram.
Chautala was the son of Devi Lal, a former Deputy Prime Minister, and is survived by his two sons, Abhay Singh Chautala and Ajay Singh Chautala.
Born on January 1, 1935, in the village of Chautala in Sirsa, he first assumed the role of Chief Minister on December 2, 1989.
The former Chief Minister passed away around 12 noon at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram.
He had been experiencing breathing difficulties and had been receiving treatment at Medanta for the past three to four years.
On Friday, his health suddenly worsened, and he was rushed to the emergency ward of Medanta, but unfortunately suffered a cardiac arrest and could not be revived.
Abhay Singh Chautala is a former MLA from the Ellenabad constituency and served as the Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Legislative Assembly from October 2014 to March 2019.
Chautala's great-grandson Dushyant Chautala previously held the position of Deputy Chief Minister in the prior BJP-led government of Haryana.
Chautala was released early after the Delhi government issued an order in 2021 allowing a six-month special remission to those who had completed nine-and-a-half years of their ten-year prison sentence.
Having served nine years and nine months of his sentence, he qualified for release.
In 2013, Chautala and his son Ajay were sentenced to ten years in prison after being convicted of corruption related to a teacher recruitment scandal.
Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar did not show leniency towards the 78-year-old Chautala and his 51-year-old son while delivering the sentence.
On January 16, 2013, the court found both father and son, along with 53 others, guilty of unlawfully recruiting 3,206 teachers in the state in the year 2000.
