Om Prakash Chautala, the former chief Minister of Haryana, who is currently serving his jail term in Tihar jail, has successfully cleared his Class 12 exams at the age of 82. Chautala has scored first division in the Class 12 board examinations in the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) conducted for the prisoners of the Tihar jail.
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Chautala was serving term after he was convicted in the teachers' recruitment scam during his tenure as the CM. He was out on parole but chose to go back to the jail to answer his exams.
According to Chautala's son, Abhay Singh Chautala, the MLA of Ellenabad, his father was on parole for the wedding of his grandson Dushyant Chautala, the Hisar MP, during the exams but he went back to the jail on April 23 to write his papers.
Chautal's son also said that his father had worked really hard for the exams and regularly visited the library set up in the jail. He had even urged his family members to send him his course books so he could study.
Abhay Chautala is now proud of his father's achievements. "When my father was in school, my grandfather and former deputy prime minister Devi Lal were in jail fighting for farmers' rights. Since my father was the eldest in the family, he had to drop out and take on the family's responsibility. He encouraged other members to study," Abhay added.
The ex-CM is now planning to take up an undergraduate course. "He is focused and goes to the jail library daily. His favourite books are on politics. He wants to use the jail term meaningfully," Abhay said.
Om Prakash, was convicted by a trial court in 2013 on charges of corruption in the recruitment scam involving 3,206 basic trained teachers in Haryana in the year 2000. Two years later it was upheld by the Supreme Court. Abhay's older brother, Ajay Chautala, who was also involved in the scam is serving his term in Tihar.
