PMLA case: ED freezes Rs 6-cr assets after raids against Punjab ex-minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, others

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 26

The Enforcement Directorate today said it had frozen assets and deposits worth over Rs 6 crore during searches against former Punjab minister and Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu and some others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with its probe linked to an alleged tender scam.

The ED said the raids were conducted on August 24 on 25 locations in multiple cities of Punjab.

Besides the premises of the former minister, the ED also conducted searches on the premises of Raman Balasubramanium, a former chairman of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), and some others.

Ashu, a former Minister of Food and Civil Supplies, is holding the post of working president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.

The ED, in an official statement, said Rs 4.81 crore in multiple bank accounts, prima facie identified as proceeds of crime, were frozen apart from five immovable properties worth about Rs 1.54 crore along with

four bank lockers.

“Incriminating documents, digital devices and currency of around Rs 30 lakh were also seized from various premises,” the agency said.

The ED launched its probe on the basis of a Punjab Vigilance Bureau FIR related to the transportation and labour cartage policy, 2021, of the state government and complaints related to an LIT “scam” regarding the allotment of plots to fake persons, the agency said in a statement.

The ED said it was alleged that the tenders “were allotted to contractors, who approached the minister through Rakesh Kumar Singla, Chairman of the CVC, Food and Civil Supplies”. It went on to further allege that through “this favoritism”, the contractors, who were allotted the land, got undue advantages, causing loss to the government exchequer.

Money laundering charge

• An FIR had been lodged against former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, partners of Gurdas Ram and Company, officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department and employees of various procurement agencies
• They had been booked for allegedly committing irregularities in accepting labour, cartage and transportation tenders for grain markets in Ludhiana
• Ashu had been granted bail on March 25 by the High Court

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