Counsel for former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao, accused in a coal block allocation case, on Friday named former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a special court saying allocation decisions were taken by Singh’s office as he headed the Coal Ministry then.
While seeking bail for his client, Rao’s counsel told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar that the then Prime Minister also held the Coal portfolio at the time and that his client had nothing to do with the allocation of the Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand to Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal’s group firms.
“The decision regarding final allocation was taken by the Minister of Coal, who was the then Prime Minister. I (Rao) had nothing to do with it,” the counsel said.