Barely two weeks after a special CBI court summoned former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for questioning on the controversial Coalgate scam, he today moved the Supreme Court challenging the order.
On March 12, a special CBI court had summoned Singh, along with five others including industrialist Kumar Mangalam
Birla
and the former coal secretary PC Parakh
in a case involving the allocation of Odisha's
Talabira
coal blocks in 2005 to Hindalco
, a Birla
group company. They had been asked to appear on April 8.
Dr Singh, 82, who was prime minister for 10 years till his Congress party lost power last year, is being investigated for criminal conspiracy and breach of trust, a charge that carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The court summoned the former PM despite the special prosecutor telling the CBI court that "there was no prosecutable evidence against Dr Singh."
Earlier Singh had told the media, 'I respect the judicial process of this country. I hope in any fair trial I will be able to establish my total innocence."
A day after the court summoned him, Congress president Sonia Gandhi walked to his house with a large group of party leaders, and said the party stood firmly behind him.
"We offer our unstinting support and are fully behind him. We shall fight this not only legally but with all our means at our command," Sonia Gandhi had said.
