In a massive development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided former Punjab cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu's residence in Ludhiana. As per reports, on early Thursday morning, a team of ED reached Bharat Bhushan Ashu's house near Kochhar Market in Ludhiana. Apart from raiding at Bhusan's residence, an investigation is also going on at the houses of many officers of the Food and Supplies Department. A separate report suggests that the ED has also raided many contractors and Congress leaders like Sunny Bhalla and Raman Subramanium. Although the ED has not revealed the reason behind their raid, reports suggest that the fresh raid at Bharat Bhushan Ashu's house pertains to the infamous food grain scam of Punjab which took place during Ashu's tenure as food, civil supplies, and consumer affairs minister.
Currently, heavy Police forces have been deployed outside the residence of Ashu. Reports also suggest that the team ED has also raided Ashu's former PA Inderjit Indi and another aide Pankaj Malhotra Meenu. It is pertinent to mention here that Ashu has already been booked by the Vigilance Bureau in the past. In fact, he was also sent for judicial custody in a cheating and corruption case.
For the unversed, the Punjab government has registered cases against Ashu in different places including Ludhiana. Due to this Ashu had to spend several months in jail and now he is out on bail. ED had taken papers of grain scam from Vigilance.
What is the Food Grain Scam?
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Bharat Bhushan Ashu has been named as an accused in the alleged alleged Rs 2,000 crore food grain transportation scam. As per reports, the Vigilance Bureau (VB) had arrested Bharat Bhushan Ashu in Ludhiana on August 22 in an alleged scam related to the allotment of tenders for the transportation of grains during his tenure as food and supply minister in the previous Congress government. On August 16, 2022, the VB registered a case against the partners of Gurdas Ram and Company, officials of the state food and civil supplies department, and employees of the procurement agencies concerned for allegedly committing irregularities in accepting labour, cartage and transportation tenders for grain markets in Ludhiana district.
During the Vigilance investigation, it came to light that at the time of submitting tenders for the year 2020-21 with regard to labour, cartage and transportation works in Ludhiana district, the lists of vehicles submitted by contractors were containing registration numbers of scooters, motorcycles, cars and other vehicles, which were not verified by officials of the district tender committee. According to the department policy, it was mandatory for the committee to reject technical bids after fining such discrepancies.