Coal scam: Court dismisses plea to summon ex-PM Manmohan Singh as defence witness

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: A special court on Wednesday dismissed plea to summon former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as defence witness in a coal scam case.

Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) director RS Rungta, an accused in a coal block allocation scam case, had last month moved an application before a special court seeking to summon former prime minister Manmohan Singh as a witness in his defence in the case.

Besides Singh, who was also the then minister of coal, Rungta had also sought summoning of former minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao as a witness in his defence in the case.

The court had on 21 November concluded recording of statements of accused in the case.

In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged that it had found in the probe that JIPL had "grossly misrepresented" a number of aspects before Ministry of Steel (MoS) and Ministry of Coal (MoC) to inflate their claim, thereby inducing MoC officers and the screening committee to allocate the coal block to
them.

With Agency Inputs