India News | Punjab: Former Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu Sent to Judicial Custody

Ludhiana (Pb), Aug 31 (PTI) A local court on Wednesday sent former minister and Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu to judicial remand for two weeks in connection with alleged irregularities in food grain transportation tenders.

Ashu was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate Sumit Makkar who sent the Congress leader to jail.

Also Read | West Bengal SSC Scam: Partha Chatterjee, Arpita Mukherjee Sent to Another 14 Days Judicial Custody.

Earlier, the court had remanded the former minister in the custody of the vigilance bureau till August 27. It had extended his remand on Saturday and then again on Monday for two more days.

The defence counsel had termed the whole case as “false and frivolous”.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: Bulldozer Runs on 'Illegal' Shops Outside Samajwadi Party Office in Lucknow.

They had said that it was a clear case of “political vendetta and rivalry only to placate some political bosses.”

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau had on August 22 arrested Ashu, a former food and supply minister in the previous Congress government.

Ashu, who is the Congress' state unit working president, was arrested in Ludhiana by the state vigilance bureau in a scam related to the allotment of transportation tenders on fake registration numbers of vehicles during the previous Congress regime.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)