Manmohan can't distance himself from coal scam: minister Ahir

Two days after the CBI opposed the plea of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda in a special court seeking to summon Manmohan Singh as an accused in the coal scam, Union Minister Hansraj Ahir today said the former Prime Minister cannot dissociate himself from the case.
"Manmohan Singh has got a clean chit in one of the matters. There are many other matters where his name is involved. When the whole scam happened, he was the Coal Minister, so his involvement cannot be ruled out," Ahir said, speaking to reporters here.
Ahir, an MP from Chandrapur in Maharashtra and the Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers, said that CBI, ED and CAG too had spoken of large-scale corruption while allocating coal blocks and the Supreme Court had cancelled most of the allocations.

"So how can Singh, who was the PM then and who even headed the coal ministry, be given a clean chit? He may not have personally got any monetary benefits but certainly there are irregularities. In such a situation, he cannot dissociate himself from the scam," said Ahir.
On September 28, the CBI had opposed the plea to summon Singh and two others in the coal scam case before Delhi court. Special public prosecutor R S Cheema had contended that records didn't prima facie suggest that Singh, who also held the coal portfolio, was a part of any conspiracy in allocating coal blocks to Jindal group firms.

The CBI had conducted a comprehensive and complete probe and it did not find any reason for summoning the former PM as an accused, he had said.