Former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao on Monday sought summoning of Manmohan Singh, claiming in a Special Court that the office of the then Prime Minister had allocated a coal block to Jindal group after examining and re-examining the matter.
Supporting ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda’s plea seeking summoning of Singh as additional accused in a coal block allocation scam case, Rao’s counsel told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar that Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand was allotted to Naveen Jindal Group firms and the decision was taken by the then Prime Minister who was also the Coal Minister at that time.
Dasari Narayan Rao told Special Judge Bharat Parashar that he is supporting Koda’s application.
Madhu Koda had filed a plea in August seeking Manmohan Singh’s summoning in the case. In his plea he said, “Materials placed by the CBI shows the said conspiracy, if any, cannot be completed without the involvement of the (then) Coal Minister (Manmohan Singh) who had the final say in the entire allotment.”
He requested the summoning of Anand Swaroop, the then energy secretary and Jai Shankar Tiwari, the then mines secretary, saying they were part of the three-member sub-group formed by the Jharkhand Government to evaluate the pleas of firms for getting allocation.
The court will hear CBI’s submission in this matter on Tuesday.The court was hearing a case related to the allocation of Jharkhand’s Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to Jindal Steel and Gagan Sponge.
Apart from Koda, Jindal, Rao, former coal secretary HC Gupta and others have been named as accused in the case.
They have been charge sheeted for criminal conspiracy and cheating as well as under the Prevention of Corruption Act.