A special CBI Court on Wednesday summoned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and five others to appear before it as accused, in a case relating to the allocation of the Talabira II/III coal blocks in Odisha, in 2005.

Besides Singh, former Coal Secretary PC Parakh, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and two others have been summoned on April 8.

Reacting to the ruling, the former Prime Minister said: “Of course, I am upset, but this is part of life. I have always said I am open for legal scrutiny. I am sure the truth will prevail.” Singh has maintained that he adhered to procedures when he held charge of the Coal Ministry.

Judge Bharat Parashar of the special CBI court said that Singh’s approval to allocate a coal block to Hindalco prima facie “facilitated windfall profits” to the private firm, resulting in a loss to state-owned PSU Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC).

Procedures violated He said the approval by Singh, who was also Minister of Coal at the time, was in “violation” of the established procedure.

“Undoubtedly from the nature of office held by him, the Prime Minister of a country cannot personally look into the minute details of each case placed before him and has to depend upon his advisors and other officers.

“However, in the present case, Dr Manmohan Singh chose to keep the coal portfolio …and thus prima facie he cannot claim that being Prime Minister he could not be expected to personally look into the minute details of … every case,” the order said.

“His (Singh’s) approval … clearly resulted in defeating the efforts of NLC to establish a 2,000 MW power plant in Odisha. His action thus prima facie resulted in loss to NLC … and facilitated windfall profits to … Hindalco,” the judge said.

The order further added that while Shubhendu Amitabh, Group Executive President, Aditya Birla Management Corporation, and D Bhattacharya, MD, Hindalco, started the “initial acts of criminal conspiracy”, Kumar Mangalam Birla “exercised his influence over the political and bureaucratic channels” in order to secure allocation of the Talabira-II coal block.

There was a concerted effort to “somehow accommodate Hindalco in the Talabira-II coal block”, the judge observed.

Detailing the role of Singh, the court said he had allowed the matter pertaining to allocation of the Talabira-II coal block to be “reopened” even though he himself had cleared the minutes of the 25th Screening Committee recommending allocation of the block to NLC.

“The repeated reminders from the 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,” it said.

“…the role of various officers in the PMO or even in MOC has also not been prima facie completely above board,” it added.

The judge said Singh had approved a proposal put forth by then Coal Secretary Parakh, a co-accused, to accommodate Hindalco in the Talabira II and III coal block while ignoring the “words of caution” put forth by two PMO officials, KV Pratap and Javed Usmani.

Congress cautious

While the ruling BJP said the law was taking its course, the Congress said the Centre was trying to politicise the summons to divert people’s attention from the Land Acquisition Law. The Janata Dal (U) expressed support for Singh saying no one can question the former PM’s integrity.

In a statement, Hindalco said that none of its officials had pursued any unlawful or inappropriate means to secure the block and it had acted in a transparent manner, following which it got a 15 per cent share in the block.

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