Manmohan Singh summoned in coal scam case

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, March 11, 2015:  Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh was summoned by a special CBI court in a coal scam case on Wednesday. Dr Singh has been accused of criminal conspiracy, corruption and breach of trust by a public servant.

The court, which has also summoned former Coal Secretary PC Parekh, has asked them to appear before it on April 8. The economist ex-PM has already been questioned by the CBI twice in the case.

The Congress rejected the charges. "It needs to be understood that the Supreme Court did not pass even a whisper of a stricture on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," party spokesperson Manish Tewari said. "The former PM and the former government conducted itself with utmost transparency," he added.

"The facts and circumstances need to be seen. After examining the lower court’s order, Dr Manmohan Singh’s team would take a call," he said.

In November last year, the court had asked the CBI why it had not questioned Dr Singh in the case of the allocation of a coal block in 2005 to a firm. During the hearing, neither the judge nor the investigating agency took the name of Manmohan Singh, who had held direct charge of the Coal Ministry at the time.

In a major setback to the government, the Supreme Court had in September last year cancelled 214 of the 218 coal blocks allocated by the successive governments since 1993 and gave the companies awarded coal licences six months to wind up their operations.

The allocation of the coal blocks to various companies had been at the centre of what has come to be known as the Coalgate scandal, said to cost the exchequer Rs.1.86 lakh crore according to a 2012 audit report. The CBI, which is investigating the multi-crore scam, has alleged that for several years, mining licences were given arbitrarily to private companies without a transparent bidding process.

The opposition Congress had faced a huge embarrassment during the UPA II regime with investigation into the coal scam directly implicating the then Prime Minister’s Office.

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday