{Foodgrains transportation scam} ED arrests ex-Congess minister Ashu in money-laundering case
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested former Punjab food and civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu in an alleged ₹2,000-crore foodgrain transportation-linked money-laundering case.
Jalandhar
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested former Punjab food and civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu in an alleged ₹2,000-crore foodgrain transportation-linked money-laundering case.
Ashu was on ED’s radar ever since the vigilance bureau arrested him in August 2022. The ED summoned Ashu for questioning on Thursday. The questioning, which began around 10am, went throughout the day following which Ashu was arrested late in the evening.
The ED had initiated a parallel probe into the money trail under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after the VB registered an FIR on August 16, 2022.
A senior ED official said that Ashu was summoned following the findings of agencies’ investigation for the past one-and-a-half-year on the basis of documents provided by the Punjab vigilance bureau.
“The investigators had come up with a list of nearly 20 questions pertaining to the allotment of tenders, mode of payment to the contractors, money trail, alleged investment of procured amount in real estate business and others. His response was found to be unsatisfactory due to which he was arrested for detail interrogation,” an official said.
Ashu will be produced in a Mohali court on Friday.
In August last year, the ED had carried out raids at the commercial and residential premises of Ashu and other accomplices named in the VB FIR and confiscated key documents related to the scam.
The ED has already seized ₹6 crore during search operations last year following which the proceedings were initiated under the PMLA.
On August 16, 2022, the vigilance bureau registered a case against Ashu, his PA Pankaj Kumar, alias Menu Malhotra, then food and civil supplies deputy director RK Singla, district food and civil supplies controller (DFSC) Rakesh Bhaskar, besides three contractors — Telu Ram, Yashpal, Ajaypal besides others— for committing the fraud and embezzlement, causing a huge loss to the state exchequer by allegedly committing irregularities in accepting labour, cartage and transportation tenders for grain markets in Ludhiana district.
An FIR was registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery of valuable security, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120B (party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the IPC and sections 7 (2), 8, 12 and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act at the VB police station in Ludhiana.
The Punjab government had accorded prosecution sanction against Ashu in the alleged ₹2,000 crore foodgrain transportation scam.
In the preliminary chargesheet filed by the VB, it was mentioned that the transportation, labour and cartage tenders allotted for grain lifting process during Ashu’s tenure as the minister were stage-managed and given to his aides in exchange of money and in connivance with Rakesh Kumar Singla, former deputy director of food and civil supplies department. Singla, a co-accused in the case, is absconding and has been declared a proclaimed offender.
The vigilance bureau had claimed that at the time of submitting tenders for year 2020-21, the list of vehicles submitted by contractors contained registration numbers of scooters, motorcycles and cars, which were not verified by officials of the district tender committee due to criminal connivance with each other.
According to the department policy, it was mandatory for the committee to reject technical bids after finding such discrepancies.
Congress MLAs Pargat Singh and Sukhwinder Singh Kotli, who reached the Jalandhar Civil Hospital where Ashu was taken for medical check-up after his arrest, said the arrest of former minister was a political vendetta against the Congress by the central agencies at the behest of the BJP-led Union government.