Former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Tuesday moved Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking bail in a cheating and corruption case registered against him by the Vigilance Bureau in Ludhiana.
Ashu, through his counsels Senior Advocates Bipin Ghai and Nikhil Ghai, contended before the court that the present case was nothing but an abuse of the process of law. “The only motive of the Vigilance Bureau, working under the present ruling government of Aam Aadmi Party, was to publicly humiliate the petitioner, who was a cabinet minister at the time when the Congress Party was in power in the state of Punjab,” the petition filed by the minister said.
The Vigilance Bureau’s case alleges that Ashu had tried to help certain contractors by changing a clause in the Punjab Food Grains Labour and Cartage Policy 2020-21. The agency said that every year, Punjab Food & Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department (Food Grains Procurement Branch) issues a policy for storage, labour and cartage policy to carry food grain to the godown up to 8 kilometres from the grain market. The policies are drafted by a special committee, consisting of Secretary Food Supply, Director Food Supply and other higher officials of the state. Therefore, the drafting of policies was not a one-man job, but was carried out by a group of experts, who verified and analyzed each aspect, after which the final draft of policy was formulated.
