Former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, got a major relief as the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Friday granted him bail from ED custody and also ordered the quashing of two FIRs registered against him in multi-crore Punjab foodgrain transportation scam. Divya Goyal Gopal explains the case, which the ruling AAP had claimed to be its big step against corruption. How was the scam unearthed? The foodgrain transportation scam pegged at Rs 2,000 crore was unearthed by the Punjab vigilance bureau. As per the FIR, it was alleged that Telu Ram was one of the contractors who was given tender for lifting foodgrains from mandis to godowns during Ashu's tenure as food and civil supplies minister in the previous Congress government. Vigilance had claimed that Ram during his interrogation said that he paid bribe of Rs 26 lakh to bag the tender, of which he allegedly paid Rs 6 lakh to Meenu Pankaj Malhotra, Ashu's close aide and another Rs 20 lakh to Rakesh Kumar Singla, then deputy director in food and civil supplies department (now dismissed). Ashu was arrested on August 22, 2022 from a salon in Ludhiana when he was getting a haircut. He was released from jail almost seven months later after he was granted bail in March 2023. Who were the other main accused? From several arthiyas to Ashu's close aides, at least 15 arrests were made, including his associates Inderjit Singh Indi, Pankaj Meenu Malhotra, Telu Ram among others. However, later all of them were released on bail. Another main accused in the case was then deputy director in food and civil supplies department Rakesh Kumar Singla. His properties worth crores were seized in Ludhiana and was declared a proclaimed offender after police failed to arrest him. He reportedly fled to Canada. What did the chargesheet claim? A preliminary chargesheet was filed in the local court of Ludhiana on November 14, 2022. The chargesheet mentioned that “Ashu in connivance with Singla, made changes in the labour, cartage and transportation policy for 2020-21 to benefit certain individuals and to eliminate some others from the tendering process.” The chargesheet has further claimed that during Ashu's tenure, the expenditure incurred by the department was inflated in 2021-22 and 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20, in Ludhiana district. “Compared to 2019-20, Rs 3.21 crore more were spent on transportation in 2021-22 and 2020-21; on cartage Rs 4.20 crore more were spent and on labor, Rs 2.18 crore more were spent," says the chargesheet. The vigilance while producing a written statement by IAS officer KAP Sinha, former principal secretary, food and civil supplies department, had said that Sinha's statement had corroborated that “even as deputy director Singla faced six departmental chargesheets, including for wheat damage, irregularities in grain distribution and obtaining PR in Canada and allegedly causing loss of at least Rs 85 crore to the department. He was still promoted as the chairman of Central Vigilance Committee (CVC) on Ashu's orders.” “At minister's level and on his orders, Singla. was also given the work to inspect crates which are supplied to procurement agencies on February 15, 2019. Further he was also handed over the charge of labour, cartage and transport policy on January 2, 2019,” the chargesheet mentioned. “Sinha in a written statement has clarified that Singla's appointment was done at minister level, bypassing all norms,” the document added. Why did the ED also start a probe into the case? The ED had launched its own investigation into the money laundering angle of the case in 2023 and raided premises of Ashu and other co-accused. It recovered cash, jewellry and other valuables worth over Rs 8.6 crore, besides attaching properties worth Rs 22.78 crore. Ashu was arrested again on August 1 this year after he had gone to ED Jalandhar office for questioning, and commission agent Rajdeep Singh Nagra was arrested from Khanna on September 4 this year. The claims, counter claims Advocate Nikhil Ghai, counsel for Ashu, said that it was argued in the High Court that the case against Ashu was a “result of political vendetta" by the ruling AAP government. “The changes made in foodgrain policy were approved by the cabinet and not by Ashu in individual capacity. Also, those changes were made during extraordinary times of Covid as per need,” said Ghai.
