Punjab: 'Mantri ji' stole kids' meal, plotted to kill, hints chat

LUDHIANA: A new social media chat related to Punjab's food-grain tender scam suggests that a mantri (minister) and his personal assistant "Sheru" not only stole children's mid-day meal and did bogus billing of the other states' paddy to grab the stock but also plotted to frame and eliminate a whistleblower by texting: "Gaddi chadaunge ohnu lambe route wali (we'll put him on a long-route bus)."
This chat in TOI's possession is reportedly between two food inspectors, and the complainant has filed it with the vigilance bureau already. On Wednesday, the counsel for the complainant mentioned this new chat in the court proceedings related to the bail plea of former Punjab food, civil supplies, and consumer affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu.
The chat is said to be from December 2021 and March 2022, when the Ludhiana rural police had taken action on the recommendation of the Food Corporation of India, (FCI), which had found 3,342 and 1,459 wheat bags short in two inspections at Bhandari Plith Punsup agency warehouse in Jagraon. The plinth's custodian, Punsup official Varinder Bajwan, was booked in both cases but, after the first FIR in December 2021, he absconded, and despite that, the second FIR was lodged against him this March.
The chat message sent allegedly by another Punsup official on March 12 reads (as translated in English) that: "I have no idea how much we have in stock at Bhandari plinth. The minister's men took away at least four to five loaded trucks before the FCI's raid." The other message posted on December 25, 2021, reads that: "Mid-day meal stock goes direct from depot to the minister's account, at ABM Mill, Ghangrane."
On December 24, the official posted in the chat window that: "My wheat stock has thinned. They got the gate pass for at least 1,500 sacks from me, but 'DM' got the money directly from the arhtiya (commission agent)," to which the booked official replied: "The same happened with me. They took the bills and the gate pass for 1,200 sacks in the minister's name."
Complainant Rohit Agarwal of Ludhiana, who had reported the shortage of stock to the FCI, claimed that: "As Rashtriya Sheller Sangh's president, I kept reporting those malpractices that were going on with Ashu's consent. My complaints to the senior officials as well the vigilance bureau had no impact, so I approached the FCI, to avenge which, the minister denied me the paddy stock for shelling in 2021. In the chat, they are also talking about me where they wrote: "Mantri ne keha gaddi chadaunge ohnu lambe route wali. In my interpretation, it was a plot to kill me. Further chat mentions about bogus billing of grain smuggled from the other states, which must have made the central exchequer lost Rs 10,000 crore."
The chatters also talked about managing the FIR and took the names of a few other officials of the food-grain department. The vigilance bureau official claimed that: "We have the entire chat, and it is being examined."