The bail petition of former Punjab cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who was detained in the transportation tender scandal, has been rejected. He is in judicial custody for 14 days. On August 22, Vigilance arrested Ashu while investigating the scam. Ashu has been sent to Patiala Jail on 31 August after taking a remand of 8 days.
Ashu had also applied for bail which was heard on 7 September and the next date was fixed by the court on 9 September. The hands of Vigilance in the Transportation Tender scam currently appear to be empty as only two of the seven suspects, including contractor Teluram and Bharat Bhushan Ashu, have been arrested.
The investigation is required to determine where the other accused are hiding or whether they are receiving protection from a politician. The five defendants who have been missing for 22 days are Jagroop Singh, Sandeep Bhatia, Rakesh Singla, Meenu Malhotra, and Inderjit Indi. Vigilance has so far been unable to find out where they are hiding. At the same time, 2 files related to the case are missing. The registries received from Issewal have also not been verified.
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Bharat Bhushan Ashu along with his associates have been accused of a transport tender scam of 2 thousand crores. Ashu was accused by small contractors of malpractices in the labor and transportation tenders in the mandis of Punjab. 20-25 people benefitted by ignoring small contractors.