HYDERABAD: Former minister of State for Coal and Tollywood’s veteran film director Dasari Narayana Rao dropped a shocker on Monday when he pleaded with the CBI Special Court to summon former prime minister Manmohan Singh in connection with the coal gate scam that surfaced during the UPA regime. He claimed that the office of the former prime minister had allocated a coal block to Jindal group after examining and re-examining the matter.
Supporting former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda’s plea, seeking to summon Singh as additional accused in the coal block allocation case, Rao filed a written submission before the CBI Special Court at Patiala House Courts in New Delhi.
Rao’s counsel told CBI special judge Bharat Parashar that Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand was allotted to Naveen Jindal Group firms as per the decision taken by the former prime minister who was also in charge of the coal ministry at that time.
Earlier Madhu Koda had moved an application seeking to summon Singh and two others -Anand Swaroop, then Secretary (Energy), and Jai Shankar Tiwari, then secretary (Mines and Geology).