The Supreme Court-appointed special public prosecutor (SPP) today urged a special court to defer for tomorrow the arguments on a plea of ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda seeking summoning of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as accused in a coal scam case.
SPP R S Cheema appeared before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar and said due to some "personal difficulty", he would not be able to argue on the plea today and the matter be deferred for tomorrow.
CBI is also scheduled to argue tomorrow on a plea filed by ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta seeking dropping of proceedings against him on account of lack of sanction to prosecute him for the alleged offences in the case.
"SPP R S Cheema has submitted that due to some personal difficulty, he will not be able to address arguments today in the afternoon.... Matter be now put up for tomorrow for reply by CBI," the court noted in its order.
Koda's counsel had yesterday argued in the court that the then Prime Minister was "aware of everything" in the process of allocating a coal block to Naveen Jindal group firm and if there was any conspiracy to allocate the Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand, it could not have been without the knowledge of Singh who was also the then coal minister.
Koda has sought to summon Singh as an additional accused, along with Anand Swaroop, the then Secretary (Energy), and Jai Shankar Tiwari, then Secretary(Mines and Geology), alleging that CBI's theory of conspiracy remains incomplete without the involvement of the then Prime Minister.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to two Jindal group firms Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL).
Koda, Gupta, former MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal and 13 others were earlier chargesheeted by the CBI in the case.
