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Reasons that docked Manmohan

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New Delhi: On a bland Wednesday afternoon of March former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was left shocked and stunned after a special CBI court summoned him as an accused in alleged illegal allocation of Talabira II coal block in Odisha to Hindalco in 2005.

Beside Singh, special CBI judge Bharat Parashar also summoned former coal secretary P C Parakh , Birla and two senior officials of Hindalco, Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya.

Singh and other accused have been summoned to appear in court on April 8.

NewsMobile brings to its readers the important facts that led CBI’s investigation to Singh’s door in coal scam:

The fresh summon issued to former Prime Mnister Manmohan Singh is concerned with the coal block allocation in 2005 of the Talabira-II coal block in Orissa (now Odisha) to Mahanadi Coalfileds Ltd, Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC) and Hindalco, to be mined after the three entities formed a joint venture.

·         Coal gate scam came to notice after ‘leak’ of the draft CAG report in March 2012. And at that time Singh was coal minister for a short period of time when the alleged ‘inefficient’ allocations were made.

·         According to a special court, Singh was then in charge of the coal ministry that allowed the matter to be reopened even though he had himself permitted the approval of the minutes of 25th Screening Committee, which had recommended the allocation of the block to NLC.

·         The court while hearing the case also observed that Singh’s approval of the proposal from former coal secretary and co-accused former Coal Secretary PC Parakh to accommodate Hindalco in the Talabira-II and III blocks, while ignoring the notes of caution sounded by PMO officials KV Pratap and Javed Usmani regarding relaxation of the already approved guidelines, prima facie shows a conscious effort on his part to somehow accommodate Hindalco in the Talabira-II block.

·         The nod, given in alleged violation of established procedure and approved guidelines, hurt NLC, which already stood vested in it pursuant to the recommendation of Screening Committee, and allegedly resulted in defeating NLC’s efforts to establish a 2,000 MW power plant in Odisha.

·         Repeated reminders from PMO, written as well as telephonic, to MOC (Ministry of Coal) to expeditiously process the matter in view of the letters received from Kumar Mangalam Birla also prima facie indicate the extra undue interest shown by the PMO in the matter also spilled troubles for Singh.

·         A CBI’s investigating officer probing into coal scam had reportedly said in September 2013 that there was a “requirement” to examine Singh in the case, but the then CBI director Ranjit Sinha had shot down the idea.

·         CBI had filed two closure reports earlier in the case in which it said that it had found no evidence against accused like Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former coal secretary PC Parakh.

·         After filing the FIR in 2013 against the former coal secretary and Birla, the CBI had filed a final report in August 2014 when it sought a closure of the FIR saying that the allocation of the coal block was made in the “larger interest of the country”.

·         But judge Parashar had grilled the CBI on whether they had questioned the former Prime Minister and officials from his office. The CBI then proceeded to examine officials like TKA Nair and later even examined Singh a couple of times in January.

·         After a second probe, the CBI in its final report filed on 19 February again noted that there was no evidence of criminality on the part of Singh, Birla and others.

Charges against Singh

The court has taken cognizance of offences under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The charge of criminal breach of trust carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the former Prime Minister is set to challenge summon in the court and the entire top Congress leadership including Sonia Gandhi on Thursday took to the streets to express solidarity with Singh, with the party President calling it “outrageous”.

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