CBI to respond on Friday to Koda plea seeking Manmohan's summoning

A special court set Friday for hearing the reply of Central Bureau of Investigation on former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda's plea seeking summoning of former prime minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allocation case allegedly involving Jindal Steel.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar listed the matter for Friday after special public prosecutor R. S. Cheema submitted that due to some personal difficulty, he will not be able to address the arguments on Thursday, as originally scheduled.

Koda has filed a plea last month seeking summoning of Manmohan Singh in the case.

In his plea, he said: "Materials placed by the CBI shows the said conspiracy, if any, cannot be complete without the involvement of the (then) coal minister (Manmohan Singh) who had the final say in the entire allotment."

He also sought summoning of the then energy secretary Anand Swaroop and the then mines secretary Jai Shankar Tiwari, saying they were part of the three-member sub-group formed by the Jharkhand government to evaluate the pleas of firms and suggest suitable application for recommendation by the state.

The court was hearing a case related to the allocation of Jharkhand's Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to Jindal Steel and Gagan Sponge.

Apart from Koda, Congress leader Naveen Jindal, former union minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao, former coal secretary H.C. Gupta and others have been named as accused in the case.

They have been charge sheeted for criminal conspiracy and cheating as well as under the Prevention of Corruption Act.