Punjab: ED freezes Rs 6 cr assets after raids against ex-Congress minister in money laundering probe

Assets and deposits worth more than Rs 6 crore have been seized in searches against former Punjab minister and Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu

New Delhi: Assets and deposits worth more than Rs 6 crore have been seized in searches against former Punjab minister and Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu and some others as part of a money laundering case probe linked to an alleged tender scam, the ED said on Saturday.

The raids were launched on August 24 in 25 locations in Punjab.

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Besides the premises of the former minister, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also conducted searches at those of Raman Balasubramanium, a former chairman of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), and some others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Ashu, a former minister of food and civil supplies in the Punjab government, is currently a working president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.

In a statement, the federal agency said Rs 4.81 crore kept in multiple bank accounts of the searched persons, prima facie identified as proceeds of crime, were freezed apart from five immovable properties worth about Rs 1.54 crore along with four bank lockers. “Incriminating documents, digital devices and Indian currency of around Rs 30 lakh were also seized from various premises,” it said.

The money laundering investigation stems from 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 allotment of plots to bogus persons, the ED said.

It was alleged that the tenders “were allotted to contractors who approached the minister (Ashu) through Rakesh Kumar Singla, Chairman of CVC, Food and Civil Supplies”, the ED said “Through this favoritism, the allottee contractors got undue advantages causing loss to the government exchequer,” it alleged.