In its 75-page order, a special court here on Wednesday examined the actions of the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, after industrialist K.M. Birla had written two letters to him for allocation of the Talabira-II coal block to Hindalco. “The repeated reminders from PMO, written as well as telephonic, to MOC to expeditiously process the matter in view of the letters received from Kumar Mangalam Birla also prima facie indicate the extra undue interest shown by the PMO in the matter.”
The court said: “It is also prima facie clear that though Secretary, Coal, and Minister of Coal were playing different roles, there was a concerted joint effort to somehow accommodate M/s HINDALCO in Talabira-II, coal block. It was the central common objective of the impugned criminal conspiracy known to all concerned.”
The court noted that Dr. Singh’s actions resulted in a loss to Neyveli Lignite Corporation.
Published - March 12, 2015 07:23 am IST
