New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been questioned by CBI in the coal block allocation case relating to Hindalco but neither he nor the agency was willing to confirm it. According to informed sources, a team of CBI officials “examined” the former Prime Minister at his residence two days ago ahead of the filing of status report before a special CBI court by January 27.
He is the first former prime minister to have been interrogated in any case.ormer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is said to have been examined by CBI in the coal block allocation case relating to Hindalco but neither he nor the agency was willing to confirm it.
Singh’s examination was in connection with a coal scam case relating to allocation of Talabira II block to Hindalco when he was also holding the portfolio of Coal and in pursuance of the court’s December 16 order.
The sources said Singh was examined about the developments which took place in the Ministry of Coal as well as the PMO after industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla had written two letters dated May 7, 2005 and June 17, 2005 to the then PM requesting for allocation of Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco.
The CBI had in August last submitted its closure report in the case, giving a clean chit to the firm and former coal secretary PC Parakh. Hindalco, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Parakh were named in the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the agency in October 2013.
Refusing to accept CBI’s closure report filed in the matter, the trial court had said “I have ordered further investigation. I desire that statements of the then minister of coal (Manmohan Singh) be recorded besides other officials.”
Bureau Report
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