A local court in Ludhiana on Tuesday remanded former minister and Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu to the custody of Vigilance Bureau till August 27 in an alleged food grain transportation tenders scam.
He was produced before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Sumit Makkar. Tight security arrangements were made before Ashu was to be produced before the court.
Telu Ram, one of the co-accused in this case, was sent to remand till August 25. During their over an hour-long argument, Ashu's counsels termed the whole case “false and frivolous.” They said it was a clear case of “political vendetta and rivalry only to placate some political bosses.”
Punjab Congress Chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa, Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla, MLA Pargat Singh, and other party leaders were present in the court complex where the hearing took place.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau had on Monday arrested Ashu, a former food and supply minister in the previous Congress government. Ashu, who is the Congress' state unit working president, was arrested in Ludhiana by the state vigilance bureau in a scam related to allotment of transportation tenders on fake registration numbers of vehicles during the previous Congress regime. Ashu is the second minister of the previous government in the state to be arrested.
In June, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau had arrested former minister and Congress leader Sadhu Singh Dharamsot on corruption charges.
MANN SAYS LAW WILL TAKE ITS OWN COURSE
A day after Ashu was arrested by Punjab Vigilance Bureau, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said that law will take its own course.
“My Government takes action only when there is proof of wrongdoing,” said Mann while denying the allegations of “political vendetta” by the Congress party. Punjab Congress leaders, protesting outside the Vigilance Bureau office in Mohali on Monday, had accused the Aam Aadmi Party 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.
Mann said that before the assembly elections, AAP had promised the people of Punjab that it will take account of each penny from those who looted the state exchequer. “Law is taking its course that how this big scam took place and which officers and political people were involved in it,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event.
“We are not doing any political vendetta. Had we done so, we would have then registered FIR against anyone till now,” said the Chief Minister, adding, “Till we get proof that yes this (former) Minister had ordered it and his involvement was there in it, we didn't initiate action”.
Pointing toward the Congress’ protest on Monday, Mann said: “First, they were saying that they should be arrested, and when an arrest was made, then they said why it did so.”