Plea on summoning Manmohan Singh to be heard September 2

A Delhi court on Friday fixed September 2 for hearing former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda's plea to summon former prime minister Manmohan Singh in a coal block allocation case.

In his plea, Koda said that "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 secretary (energy) Anand Swaroop and the then secretary (mines and geology) 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.

Special Judge Bharat Parashar was hearing a case related to the allocation of Jharkhand's Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to Jindal Steel and Gagan Sponge.

The court also fixed for October 5 the arguments on the framing of charges in the case.

Congress leader Naveen Jindal, Koda, 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 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.