Chandigarh: A Jalandhar court on Friday sent senior Punjab Congress leader and former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu to five-day enforcement directorate (ED) remand following his arrest by the ED late Thursday evening in connection with a multi-crore transportation tender `scam’ during Congress rule in the state.
According to information, Ashu is accused in an alleged Rs 2,000 crore foodgrain transportation-linked money laundering case during his tenure as the food and civil supplies minister in the previous Congress government.
According to information, Ashu was summoned Thursday following the findings of ED’s probe for the past over one-and-half year on the basis of documents provided by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau which had registered a case against the accused about two years ago.
A case against Ashu and others was registered by Punjab Vigilance Bureau in August 2022, under various sections, besides PMLA regarding the transportation and labour cartage policy 2021 and allotment of plots by Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT).
The Ludhiana-based Congress leader Ashu reached the ED office around 10.30 am for interrogation in a case under the prevention of money laundering Act (PMLA) and was arrested after ED officials held, he was not cooperating during the questioning.
He was subsequently kept in the ED office lockup till Friday morning after which he was presented before a Jalandhar court. A large number of Congress workers led by the party district chief Rajinder Beri gathered outside the ED office alleging political vendetta behind Ashu’s arrest.
It may be recalled that ED had also conducted raids on at least 10 premises of Ashu and others accused in August last year in the connection which had led to gold jewelry worth Rs 2.12 crore and deposits worth Rs 6.5 crore from the accused.
According to information other accused in the case included former LIT chairman Raman Balasubramium, his personal assistant Pankaj Kumar, deputy director R K Singla, besides three contractors namely Telu Ram, Yashpal and Ajay Pal for allegedly committing fraud and causing huge losses to the state exchequer.
