New Delhi: A summoned had been released by Delhi court on Wednesday to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and others as accused in a coal block allocation scam case.
Special Judge Bharat Prashar had rejected the closing plea of CBI and asked all the accused persons to appear on April 8, the next date of hearing.
The CBI had earlier sought closure of the case. However, when the Special Judge pulled it up for filing a patchy probe report, it filed a revised one and took a U-turn, stating that “there is prima facie enough material on record” to prosecute Parakh and Birla.
The case pertains to the allocation of coal blocks to Hindalco, owned by the Aditya Birla Group, allegedly in violation of rules.
Notify that CBI had lodged an FIR against Parakh, Birla and others last year, alleging that Parakh had reversed his earlier decision not to allocate coal blocks to Hindalco and shown undue favor to it.
The CBI has recorded the statement of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in connection with alleged irregularities in the allocation of an Odisha coal block to industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla’s company Hindalco earlier on January 20, 2015.
Meanwhile CBI officials had confirmed that Singh’s statement had been recorded, they remained tight-lipped over when exactly the agency approached him. The former Prime Minister’s statement has been recorded following a direction by the Special CBI Court last month. Observing that a concerted effort was being made to manipulate the entire government machinery so as to protect the interest of Hindalco, the Court had directed the agency to examine the then Coal Minister (Mr. Singh) on various aspects of the coal block allocation to the company.
The CBI had sought closure of the case, in which Birla, former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh and others were named as accused. However, the court directed the agency to carry out further investigations in the case and submit a progress report on January 27, stating that before examining the matter further, it was appropriate that the then Coal Minister was first examined.
The CBI had in October 2013 registered the case alleging that Birla and Parakh, along with other accused persons, entered into a criminal conspiracy to facilitate partial allocation of the Talabira coal block to Hindalco in 2005.
The move prompted the PMO to issue a detailed statement in Singh’s defence. The PMO said Singh was “satisfied” that the final decision was “entirely appropriate” and based “on the merits of the case placed before him”, and that he had formally endorsed the Coal Ministry’s decision to overturn the 25th screening committee’s recommendation to accommodate Kumar Mangalam Birla’s company for the allocation of the coal block in question.
Bureau Report
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