Tender Scam: After 4 months on the run, ex-minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu's PA held

Ludhiana, January 2

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The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Monday arrested former Cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu’s personal assistant (PA) Inderjit Singh Indi in the multi-crore transportation tender scam. Indi was arrested after he surrendered to the VB here.

To avoid arrest, Indi had been on the run for the past four months. Indi had also moved the Supreme Court for bail, but his application had been dismissed.

A VB spokesperson said Indi was fearing that a court could declare him a proclaimed offender (PO) in the case For this, the VB had already initiated legal proceedings against him and the next date of hearing had been fixed on January 4, he said. He will be produced in a competent court tomorrow

at Ludhiana.

Giving details, the spokesperson said the VB had on August 24 received a tip-off that after the arrest of Ashu, Indi had received a bag containing jewellery, documents, etc. from an unknown person who had brought it from Ashu’s house on August 22.

After taking the bag, Indi had left for an unknown place to hide it, the spokesperson said. The incident was captured on CCTV cameras, accordingly, Indi was nominated as an accused on August 26, he said.

He said the Vigilance Bureau had registered a case on August 16, 2022, under Sections 420, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of IPC and Sections 7, 8, 12, 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against contractor Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh, Sandeep Bhatia and owners/partners of Gurdas Ram & Company as well as officials of the Food and Civil Supply Department for allocation of labour and transportation tenders in various grain markets in lieu of taking gratification.

The spokesperson said in thecase Telu Ram, Ashu, private PA of former minister Pankaj Kumar, alias Meenu Malhotra, Krishan Lal Dhotiwala and Anil Jain (both commission agents) had already been arrested.

In addition, the VB had already presented a supplementary chargesheet against Ashu, Telu Ram and Krishan Lal in the competent court in Ludhiana, he said.