The Punjab Vigilance Bureau, on Monday, arrested former minister and state’s Congress working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu in the food grains transportation scam.

A two-time legislator from Ludhiana West constituency, Ashu was food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister in the previous Congress government, first under Captain Amarinder Singh and later under Charanjit Singh Channi. The Congress leader lost his seat in the 2022 Punjab Assembly election. Here is all you need to know about the food grains transportation scam.

What is the alleged scam all about?

As per the Punjab Vigilance Bureau, the Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department in the 2020-21 procurement season invited cluster wise tenders for transportation of food grains from the mandis (food grain markets).

In Ludhiana district, a contractor, Telu Ram, got the tender for four clusters (Jodhan, Mullanpur, Raikot and Payal) which include 34 grain markets. This apart, the contractor was also having similar contracts for clusters in Ferozepur at Talwandi Bhai and Ropar.

In order to get tenders, the list of vehicles submitted by him for transportation of food grain contained registration numbers of cars, scooters, motorcycles etc instead of trucks and tractor-trailers.

As per the procedure, these transportation vehicles were required to be verified by the department.  As the vehicle registration numbers  given by Telu Ram included numbers of non-transport vehicles like  cars, scooters, motorcycles, after verification his technical bid was required to be rejected by the district tender committee. But allegedly in connivance with the contractor, the tender was alloted to Telu Ram.

Subsequently, these non-transport vehicles like cars, scooters, motorcycles were deployed for transportation of tonnes of food grain from mandis to godowns. Even in the gate passes issued at madis,  numbers of scooters, cars etc were mentioned. But the concerned officers ignored the above irregularity and made payments to the accused contractor for transportation in respect of material quoted in these gate passes, thus leading to a scam as the payment was made for the transportation work which was apparently done by the contractor only on paper.

What led the Vigilance Bureau to unearth the scam?

A complaint in the case was filed by a person identified as Gurprit Singh.  The Vigilance Bureau, after verification of a complaint made by the complainant, Gurprit Singh, registered the first information report (FIR) on 16 August under Sections 420, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120-B IPC and 7, 8, 12, 13(2) Preventions of Corruption Act at Ludhiana in which contractors namely Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia besides owner of Gurdas Ram & Company were booked.

What is the role of the former minister? 

Following the FIR, Telu Ram was arrested and remanded in police custody. During investigation by the bureau, the accused revealed that he met the then food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister  Bharat Bhushan Ashu through his personal assistant (PA) Meenu Malhotra for getting tenders for the season 2020-21. The minister allegedly told him to meet deputy director (food and civil supplies) Rakesh Kumar Singla who was in charge of the entire Punjab being chairman of departmental chief vigilance committee for tenders and was acting on the directions of former minister.

 Telu Ram told the Vigilance Bureau that when he met Singla, the officer demanded Rs 30 Lakh on behalf of the former minister and on different days he had given Rs 20 lakh as bribe to Singla, Rs Six lakh to minister’s PA Menu Malhotra and other officers.

Why was Ashu nominated in the case?

On the basis of revelations as well as the material evidence collected by the VB, the former minister, his PA and Singla have all been named as accused in the case. During Investigation, it has come on record that Telu Ram has purchased about 20 acres of land and accused Meenu Malhotra, who is at large, has also made a number of properties and records are being collected in this regard. The record of the posting of Singla is also being collected besides properties made by him would be probed.

What next?

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has received complaints of similar discrepancies in allotment of contracts by the department in 2020-21 from 18 districts in the state. All these complaints are now under investigation and it could lead to further revelations.