Probe ordered into Ajay Chautala’s Tihar speech

An inquiry has been ordered into the speech delivered through phone from Tihar by Ajay Chautala, son of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala. Both Ajay and his father have been convicted by a special CBI court for their role in the JBT (Junior Basic Trained) teachers' recruitment scam.

Jail officials said that though inmates were allowed to make phone calls, addressing a rally was strictly prohibited under the rules. The inquiry will investigate if any of the officials were aware about Ajay using the phone to address a rally of his supporters at Sonepat on February 20. While Ajay is presently lodged in jail number two, the call was made from jail number three. The inquiry will probe the duration of the call. It has been reported that the speech lasted for more than five minutes. Jail officials said that the speech may have been recorded by Ajay on two different occasions, as rules do not allow a conversation to extend beyond five minutes.

The inquiry report is expected to be out by Tuesday afternoon.

Sunil Gupta, spokesperson of Tihar, said, "As per our phone facility inside the prison, no call can be extended beyond five minutes. The call gets disconnected automatically. The inquiry will ascertain whether his conversation was recorded and then played at the rally on a loud speaker or whether the inmate was put on loud speaker on the other side of the phone during the rally." Gupta said that inquiry committee would verify from which jail the call was made.

The use of mobile phones have become rampant in Tihar during in the last few months. Last month, the special cell arrested murder accused Amit Shukla for allegedly using a mobile phone to make an extortion call. Shukla had been caught with mobile phones four times between December and January.

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