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1st LD Writethru: Indian court summons former PM Manmohan Singh in coal scam

Xinhua, March 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

A special Indian court on Wednesday summoned the country's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an accused in a multi-billion dollar coal scam.

The former prime minister and five others were asked to appear before the court on April 8, after Singh was charged with criminal conspiracy, corruption and breach of trust by a public servant in one of the coal scam cases.

Singh also held direct charge of the Ministry of Coal when the alleged scam, which included misselling of coal fields to private parties without any auction, took place. The scam was unearthed by the state auditor.

This particular case relates to the allotment of a coalfield in 2005 to Hindalco, whose billionaire chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla is one of India's most respected industrialists.

The company has denied any wrongdoing and Singh had in a statement in 2013 defended the action.

The Supreme Court last year scrapped nearly 214 coal blocks allocated by successive governments to private companies over the past two decades. Endi