Anticipatory bail plea of ex-minster Ashu dismissed

In a significant development, the court of Additional Sessions Judge Gurpreet Kaur today dismissed the anticipatory bail application of Punjab Congress acting president and Ludhiana (West) Assembly constituency candidate, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, in a Vigilance Bureau case involving alleged land fraud.

The court declared the bail application infructuous in the light of the statement made by Vigilance Bureau DSP Vinod Sharma, who informed the court that Ashu had not been nominated as an accused in the case yet.

On June 6, Ashu was granted interim anticipatory bail by a vacation bench presided over by Additional Sessions Judge Jaspinder Sing till June 11. During the proceedings, a battery of lawyers representing the former minister urged the court to grant bail or, as an alternative, direct the Vigilance Bureau to give at least three days’ prior notice before initiating any arrest. However, their plea was opposed by a team of public prosecutors, including District Attorney Puneet Jaggi, Additional Public Prosecutors Ramandeep Toor Gill, Monika Gupta, Ajay Singla, and VB’s Additional Public Prosecutor Gurpreet Grewal, who argued strongly for dismissal of the bail plea.