Former Chief Minister of Jharkhand Madhu Koda on Monday moved an application in a special court, seeking summoning of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an accused in a coal scam case.
The fresh application by Koda comes months after the Supreme Court stayed the summons issued by a special CBI court. The CBI had summoned Singh and five others, including industrialist Kumar Manglam Birla, former coal secretary PC Parakh, D Bhattacharya and Hindalco, on 8 April in connection with the Talabira-II coal block allocation scam case.
Along with Singh, the apex court stayed the summons of five others as well. The 1 April verdict of the SC also put on hold all proceedings in the special CBI court against the six accused.
Singh and five others were summoned by the special CBI court for allegedly showing 'undue interest' while facilitating allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Orissa to Aditya Birla Group's Hindalco in 2005, when Singh was the prime minister and was also handling the portfolio of coal minister under UPA-II rule.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, arguing for Singh, had claimed before the SC that the summon was issued as an act of political vendetta by the NDA government.
