The court of additional session judge Ajit Atri granted bail to personal assistant (PA) of former Congress cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Pankaj Kumar alias Meenu Malhotra on Thursday.
Malhotra was involved in a food grains transportation scam worth ₹ 2,000 crore in the state’s grain markets and had been absconding. He had earlier surrendered before the vigilance bureau and was sent into three-day custody.
According to the vigilance bureau officials, material evidence during the probe showed that Malhotra had accepted a bribe of ₹6-lakh from contractor Telu Ram to arrange a meeting with the former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu for allotment of tenders for labour and transportation works for the year 2020-21 in the grain markets. Ashu was also granted bail on March 25 this year in the cheating corruption case. As per the case, it has been alleged that Ashu had tried to help some contractors by changing the clause in Punjab Foodgrain Labour and Cartage Policy 2020-21.