Former Punjab minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu. (File)A Ludhiana court Monday issued fresh summons to IAS officer A Venu Prasad to record his evidence as a witness in the alleged harassment case related to the ongoing enquiry into the CLU scam against former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu.
Advocate Sachin Arora, counsel for complainant Balwinder Singh Sekhon, a dismissed DSP, said: “The court has issued summons for Prasad who was then posted as principal secretary in the department. His evidence was recorded partially earlier.”
Prasad is currently posted as the additional chief secretary to Punjab Chief Minister.
The court of chief judicial magistrate Sumit Makkar has now fixed the next hearing on November 23.
During the last hearing on November 4, former local government minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, while recording his evidence had refused to comment on “photocopy” of enquiry report and said that he cannot verify it till the original file wasn’t shown to him. The court has been told that the original file is now “missing” from the office of local bodies department.
Prasad’s partial evidence was earlier recorded in March when he had said that the original file was sent to the office of then minister Sidhu but never received back. “…I cannot say whether the file was lost in my office or in the office of anyone else,” Prasad had told the court.