3 days after arrest, local court discharges Congress councillor from case

LUDHIANA: Three days after the Vigilance Bureau, Ludhiana Range arrested Congress councillor and close associate of former cabinet minister Gagandeep Sunny Bhalla in the alleged food grain scam, a local court discharged him from the case on Saturday. Vigilance officials claimed that they had requested the court to discharge Bhalla as nothing was found against him during investigation.
The VB had arrested former food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu in the foodgrain transportation tender scam on August 22. Since then, the bureau had summoned Sunny Bhalla about eight times and also collected details of his properties, income and investments.
On October 12, when the VB arrested Bhalla, they claimed that money earned by Ashu was invested through Bhalla in properties. He was produced in court on October 13 and remanded in two-day custody.
Ravinderpal Singh Sandhu, Senior Superintendent of Police (Vigilance Bureau), Ludhiana range said that during investigation, Bhalla was not found to have been involved in the case.
His counsel, advocate Rajiv Kaushal said, “The Vigilance Bureau has no incriminating evidence and could not make any recovery. Despite that, Bhalla was arrested and kept in custody. Now, the Bureau had to discharge him under pressure as they knew that there was nothing against him.”
Speaking to TOI, Gagadeep Sunny Bhalla said, “I have nothing to say as the vigilance officials themselves gave statements saying that nothing was found. All I can say is that truth has won.”
Besides Sunny Bhalla, many others who are close to Ashu, including mayor Balkar Singh, investor Hemant Sood, realtor Manpreet Singh of Issewal and others have been summoned by the VB to ascertain whether the scam money was invested through them.