Bharat Bhushan Ashu is second ex-minister in Punjab to be apprehended
Team News Riveting
Chandigarh, August 22
Former Punjab Food and Supply minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu was arrested up by a team of state’s Vigilance Bureau from Ludhiana on the charges of financial irregularities in the tender allotment scam.
He is the second minister from the previous Congress government to have been arrested for shady deals after the AAP government came to power in January this year. In June, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau had arrested former Minister and Congress leader Sadhu Singh Dharamsot on corruption charges.
Interestingly, Ashu was picked up within hours of having staged a dharna along with his Congress party colleagues outside the office of Vigilance Bureau in Mohali today morning. Addressing the workers at the dharna place, Ashu said he was innocent and that the Vigilance Bureau should arrest him if they had any incriminating evidence against him.
The Bureau officials later arrested him from a salon in Ludhiana.
The anti-corruption team got the tips against the Minister after the arrest of Telu Ram, the contractor who was awarded the contract, who revealed the name of Ashu. Initially, his name was not mentioned as an accused in the preferential allotment of tenders for labour, cartage and transportation of food grains. Tenders were allotted to the contractor by changing the norms accordingly.
