Coal scam: Court reserves order on plea to call Manmohan Singh as witness

New Delhi: A special court on Tuesday reserved for December 19 its order on an application by Jharkhand Ispat Pvt Ltd (JIPL) Director R S Rungta, an accused in a coal block allocation scam case, seeking to summon former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a witness in his defence.

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar fixed the matter for pronouncement of the order on the application, which also seeks to summon former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao as a defence witness.

Rungta's counsel, who also sought summoning of various documents, argued that these two witnesses would depose about the genuineness of the documents brought from their respective offices that is the Prime Minister Office (PMO) and Ministry of Coal.

During the arguments, the court asked the defence counsel to explain why it was relevant to summon Singh and Rao as defence witnesses in the case. The counsel argued that these witnesses would also depose about the constitution of screening committee, which had dealt with JIPL's application seeking coal block allocation, and its power.

"These files, which I seek to summon in my defence, will tell about the power of screening committee and how it was constituted," he said.

Regarding Singh, the accused has said in his plea, "He will prove the record of the Coal Ministry and the decision taken by him about constitution of screening committee and its functions and powers and would also prove the corresponding record of the Ministry of Coal."

"Further, the two witnesses (Singh and Rao) named above may also be directed to be summoned to depose about genuineness of the documents being produced from their respective office (as they were holding at the relevant point of time)," the plea has said.