The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said in a recent action, it has seized gold bullion and jewellery worth Rs 2.12 crore in Punjab as part of a money-laundering probe linked to an alleged tender scam involving former state minister and Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu.
About 4 kg of these gold valuables were seized from bank lockers in Ludhiana on Monday and the assets belong to various accused involved in the case. These lockers were frozen by the central probe agency on August 24, when it launched raids against Ashu, Raman Balasubramanium, a former chairman of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), and some others under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED had then seized cash and deposits worth Rs 6.5 crore. With this fresh seizure, the total figure now stands at more than Rs 8.6 crore, the agency said in a statement.
The money-laundering investigation stems from an FIR lodged by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau 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 people.
It is 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 had said.
”Through this favouritism, the allottee contractors got undue advantages, causing loss to the government exchequer,” it had alleged.
Ashu, a former minister of food and civil supplies in the Punjab government, is currently a working president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.
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