Punjab: Former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu arrested in tender allotment scam

Former Food and Supply minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu was on Monday arrested up by a team of Punjab Vigilance Bureau from Ludhiana, for irregularities in the tender allotment scam, according to Tribune.

He is the second minister from the previous Congress government to have been arrested by the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government on charges of corruption.

Hours before his arrest, Congress leaders said that an attempt is being made to target Bharat Bhushan Ashu on baseless grounds.

Ashu is at the centre of allegations in a transport scam in which tenders were allocated allegedly on fake registration numbers of vehicles. An inquiry is underway in the matter.

Punjab Congress today "presented" its leadership before the vigilance bureau saying it could detain any of them as it was "fed up" of allegations of corruption against its leaders by the state AAP government.

The leaders, including Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, accused the AAP government of indulging in "vendetta and witch-hunt in Punjab" to divert attention from the heat it's facing from probe agencies in Delhi.

"While in Delhi they were crying persecution and victimhood, in Punjab they are resorting to a worse type of vendetta against their political opponents," Warring said.

The Punjab Congress handed over a memorandum at the VB office in Mohali, addressed to the State Vigilance Bureau Director, and left from outside the building as the contingent was not allowed in.