Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Former minister in the Punjab cabinet, was once again brought before the court on Saturday after being arrested in the transportation tender scam. At the same time, Vigilance also called Ashu's special Mayor Balkar Sandhu to the office and inquired for hours. Meenu Malhotra, Indrajit Indi, Rakesh Singla, Teluram, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, and other individuals have been named in the case by Vigilance.
According to sources, he was questioned by Vigilance officials, although the Vigilance Department has not commented on this. Sources also said that when Mayor Balkar was called for questioning by the Vigilance, there was a gathering of Congressmen outside the Vigilance office. The cops from police station number 8 were also prepared on the site. As of as present, Vigilance has not provided any formal confirmation on this issue.
The security arrangements remained strong ahead of Bharat Bhushan Ashu's appearance in the court. Police sealed the court premises from all sides. The former minister was first taken on remand of 3 days by Vigilance.
On August 22, Ashu was detained while having a haircut at the hair salon. Gurpreet Singh had complained against Ashu to the State Vigilance that Ashu had rigged the tender distribution to benefit some of his friends.
Acting on the complaint, Vigilance lodged an FIR on Ashu under Section 420, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of IPC and Section 7,8,12,13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act at Ashu in Police Station No.11 Ludhiana. Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh, Sandeep Bhatia, as well as the owners/partners of Gurdas Ram & Co., are the contractors in this case. The contractor Teluram is in police custody, in which Bharat Bhushan Ashu was named in the interrogation.