Arrested contractor's confession led to ex-minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu's arrest: VB

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, August 22

The confession of a contractor, Telu Ram, who was earlier arrested and was at present under custody in the case pertaining to a scam involving transportation of foodgrains during the previous Congress government, led to the arrest of former food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu here on Monday, the Vigilance Bureau (VB) has said.

Congress protests outside VB office

• After the arrest of former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Congress leaders and workers held a protest outside the Vigilance Bureau office in Ludhiana Momday evening. Addressing the gathering, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said it is unfortunate that instead of paying attention to the important issues, the government was arresting the former ministers.
• Ravneet Bittu added that it is not the duty of the minister to see which number was allotted to which vehicle. The officials concerned should be questioned about it.

A senior VB officer said during custodial interrogation, the arrested contractor had admitted that he met Ashu through his personal assistant (PA) Meenu Pankaj Malhotra, who was already nominated as an accused in the case, for getting tenders for the procurement season 2020-21.

“Malhotra further told Telu Ram to meet Rakesh Kumar Singla, Deputy Director of Food and Civil Supplies Department. Singla, who was recently dismissed from service and was in-charge of the entire state, being chairman of the departmental chief vigilance committee for tenders was acting on the directions of the then minister in-charge Ashu,” the officer said.

The accused contractor has further informed the VB that when he met Singla, the latter demanded Rs 30 lakh on behalf of the former minister and on different days, he had given bribe amounting to Rs 20 lakh to Singla, Rs 6 lakh to Malhotra and rest of the money to the officers concerned.

“On the basis of confessions and revelations made by the arrested contractor as well as the material evidence on record, Ashu and others have been nominated as accused in the case,” the VB officer said.

During investigations so far, it has come to the fore that the tainted contractor, Telu Ram, had purchased about 20 acres and Ashu’s PA Malhotra, who was still at large, had made a number of properties, the record of which was being collected.

The VB was also tracking the record pertaining to the posting of dismissed deputy director Singla, besides the wealth accumulated by him.

He added that further investigation in the case was in progress and involvement of others concerned in the multi-crore scam was also being probed.

Modus operandi

The VB officer said the tenders were invited cluster-wise in which ‘A’ group of mandis and work of all procurement agencies was allotted for the cluster and name of leading mandis in particular area was used as cluster name.

In Ludhiana district, contractor Telu Ram was having four clusters — Jodhan, Mullanpur, Raikot and Payal, which included 34 grain markets. Besides, Telu Ram was also having clusters at Talwandi Bhai in Ferozepur and Ropar district as well.

Multi-crore scam

During investigations, it has come to light that the main accused, Telu Ram, had received around Rs 25 crore for the work allotted to him. To get tenders, the lists of vehicles submitted by the accused contractor contained registration numbers of cars, scooters, and motorcycles, which were not meant for transportation. If the registration numbers of vehicles submitted by the contractor were verified, the district tender committee would have rejected them. However, the panel members, in connivance with each other, allotted the tenders.

“Even in the gate passes, the numbers of scooters and cars were mentioned but the officers concerned made payments to the accused contractors in respect of material quoted in these gate passes, bringing to fore misappropriation of funds,” the VB officer revealed.

The case

An FIR number 11 was registered under Sections 420, 409, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B, IPC, and Sections 7, 8, 12, and 13 (2), Prevention of Corruption Act, at the VB police station in Ludhiana on August 16 on a complaint made by Gurprit Singh.

The contractors — Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia — besides owners/ partners of Gurdas Ram and Company had been initially named as accused in the case. Later, Ashu, his PA and dismissed deputy director were also booked.