Court summon: NCP delegation meets Manmohan; extends support

The delegation comprised of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, general secretary Tariq Anwar and senior leader Majeed Memon, among others

An NCP delegation, led by party president Sharad Pawar, today met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been issued a court summon in a coal block allocation scam case, and offered their "unstinted" support to him.

Apart from Pawar, the delegation included senior party leaders Praful Patel and Supriya Sule among others.

"Whatever the situation he is going to face because of the court matter we assured him that as a party we are wholeheartedly behind him," Pawar told reporters after the meeting.

"This (Singh's summon) is going to have a big mark on governance. Bureaucrats will be wary of taking decisions," Patel, who had served as the Civil Aviation Minister in the Manmohan Singh government, said.

Earlier, Sule tweeted, "We offer unstinted support for #ManmohanSingh, man of integrity."

NCP also offered the services of NCP's legal cell to the former Prime Minister during the meet.

"Ultimately it's a decision from the judiciary. We respect judiciary but equally it is also his right to put facts before the higher court and explain his position," the NCP chief said.

Pawar, who served as the Agriculture Minister in both terms of the UPA government, also lauded Singh's role in strengthening the country's economy, saying it was "high time that any sensible person has to support Manmohan Singhji".

"He is a person whose honesty and integrity is known all over the world," he added.

A special court had summoned Singh along with industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, ex-coal secretary P C Parakh and three others as accused in a case pertaining to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005 and asked them to appear before it on April 8.