#Breaking News #Coal:Manmohan Singh, others summoned as accused by special court in coal block allocation scam case.....#ManmohanSingh

#Breaking News #Coal:

Manmohan Singh, others summoned as accused by special court in coal block allocation scam case.....#ManmohanSingh

11 March 2015

#manmohan singh #coal block allocation case #pc parack #cbi

New Delhi: In a development which is very embarrassing for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he has been summoned as an accused by a special court in the coal block allocation scam case, according to agencies.
Besides Singh, former coal secretaries PC Parakh and Alok Perti, Hindalco, its officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya, KM Birla and others have also been summoned as accused in the scam. They have been asked to appear in the special court on April 8.
The court has summoned them for offences of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. 

 PC Parakh and Alok Perti, Hindalco, its officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya, KM Birla and others have also been summoned as accused in the scam.

 

Reacting to the development, Parakh said he had to read the full order. "It will not be appropriate for me to make any comment," he said.
Singh has already been questioned once in the case. He was examined on January 18 at his Motilal Nehru Marg residence in New Delhi. A team of top CBI officials, including a DIG, questioned the former prime minister. Questions related to his knowledge about allocation and reasons for making deviations for a specific case were asked, the sources added.
Singh is the first former prime minister to have been interrogated in any case.
Singh's examination was in connection with allocation of Talabira II block to Hindalco when he was also holding the portfolio of coal.
Singh has defended his decision to allocate coal blocks to Hindalco and said it was approved after due deliberations.
The former prime minister is learnt to have said the decision was right and it was taken after due deliberation. He also told the investigators that there was no quid pro quo involved in the allocation of coal blocks to Hindalco.
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.