Transportation tenders scam: Punjab vigilance bureau arrests former cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu

Chandigarh, Aug 22: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrested Congress leader and former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Monday evening in the alleged food grains transportation tenders scam. He was arrested from Ludhiana, officials said.

Ashu's arrest came hours after he along with other senior Punjab Congress leaders "presented" themselves at the Vigilance Bureau office in Mohali, saying it could detain any of them as they were fed up with the AAP government in Punjab levelling corruption allegations against them. Ashu, who is the Congress' state unit working president, is the second minister of the previous government in the state to be arrested.

In June, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrested former minister and Congress leader Sadhu Singh Dharamsot on corruption charges. The Congress' Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu said Ashu was picked by the Vigilance Bureau from Ludhiana when he was in a saloon. According to an official statement earlier, "a case was registered against former minister of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Friday in the scam of allotting transportation tenders on fake registration numbers of vehicles".

An inquiry is underway and more officials of the food and civil supplies department are under the scanner, it had stated.

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau last week said it has registered a case against three persons of a firm and some officials of the state food and civil supplies department for alleged irregularities in the allotment of tenders for labour, cartage and transportation for lifting foodgrains in Ludhiana.

One of the accused, Telu Ram of village Udhanwal in SBS Nagar, was later arrested. During the investigation, it was found that at the time of submitting tenders for the year 2020-21 for labour, cartage and transportation works in Ludhiana, the lists of vehicles submitted by some contractors had registration numbers of scooters, motorcycles and cars which were not verified by the officials due to alleged criminal connivance with each other, the bureau has alleged.

According to an official statement on Monday, following verification of a complaint by Gurprit Singh, the case was registered under various provisions of the IPC and under the Preventions of Corruption Act at Vigilance Bureau police station Ludhiana in which contractors, including Telu Ram, were booked.

"During the investigation, Telu Ram submitted he met Bharat Bhushan Ashu through his personal assistant Meenu Malhotra to get tenders for 2020-21 who told him to meet Rakesh Kumar Singla, Deputy Director Food and Civil Supplies.

"Singla was in charge of Punjab being chairman of the departmental chief vigilance committee for tenders and was acting on the directions of the former minister. Ram claimed that when he met Singla, he demanded Rs 30 Lakh on behalf of the former minister. On different days he gave a Rs 20 lakh bribe to Singla, and Rs 6 lakh to Meenu Malhotra. He also bribed other officers," the Vigilance Bureau said in a statement after Ashu's arrest.

A Vigilance Bureau spokesperson said that based on revelations and the material evidence, Bharat Bhushan Ashu was named as accused in this case.

"During Investigation it has come on record that Telu Ram has purchased about 20 acres of land and Meenu Malhotra, who is at large, has also bought many properties. The record on posting of Rakesh Kumar Singla is also being collected while properties accrued by him would be probed," the spokesperson said.

On Monday, Punjab Congress leaders, including its chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, protested outside the Vigilance Bureau office in Mohali accusing the AAP government of indulging in "vendetta and witch-hunt in Punjab" to divert attention from the heat the party is facing from probe agencies in Delhi. Besides Ashu and Warring, former ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Rana Gurjeet Singh were among those present at the protest.

Congress leaders and workers in Ludhiana also staged a protest outside the bureau's Ludhiana office and raised slogans against the AAP government. Before Ashu's arrest, Ravneet Singh Bittu argued with Vigilance officials and asked them to show valid papers for taking away the former minister with them. Bittu told reporters that "jungle raj" is prevailing in Punjab and the AAP government had unleashed political vendetta against its opponents. "We had all presented ourselves before the Vigilance Bureau office in Mohali. Why did they not detain Ashu there?" he asked.