involving coal-license allocations
Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seen May 21 in New Delhi, has been summoned to appear before a special court next month. ENLARGE
Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seen May 21 in New Delhi, has been summoned to appear before a special court next month. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
By NIHARIKA MANDHANA And SAURABH CHATURVEDI
Updated March 11, 2015 11:17 a.m. ET
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NEW DELHI—An Indian court summoned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accusing him of criminal conspiracy and breach of trust in a case involving the granting of coal-mining rights in 2005, when he was in power.
Wednesday’s court summons represents the latest setback for Mr. Singh’s once-towering Congress party, which last year suffered its worst ever electoral drubbing at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sBharatiya Janata Party. Mr. Singh, a respected economist, was prime minister from 2004 to 2014.
“I am upset, but this is a part of life,” Mr. Singh told reporters in New Delhi. Declaring his innocence, he said, “I respect the judicial process in our country. I hope in any fair trial I will be able to establish my total innocence.”
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The court case goes to the heart of that historic defeat, which was fueled by widespread public anger against alleged corruption during Mr. Singh’s tenure, including the controversy surrounding the coal allocation.
The Congress party repeatedly has denied allegations of graft made by its political opponents. In a news conference last year, Mr. Singh said that while there may have been some “irregularities” in governance during his tenure, “the dimensions of the problems have been overstated.”
“When history is written of this period, we will come out unscathed,” he said.
Allegations of corruption involving senior ministers of Mr. Singh’s cabinet swirled in his final years in office. But even his fiercest opponents stopped short of making direct accusations against Mr. Singh, who is credited with ushering in broad economic changes in the 1990s, when he was finance minister.
The latest court order has changed that.
Mr. Singh is accused of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and criminal misconduct alongside the coal ministry’s most senior official at the time, P.C. Parakh; industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla; and two other executives of Mr. Birla’s Aditya Birla Group.
All five have been ordered to appear before court April 8. None has been charged.
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Mr. Parakh said he is innocent and declined to comment further. An Aditya Birla unit issued a statement saying all of the Birla executives deny any wrongdoing.
The controversy surrounding the allocation of coal-mining licenses rocked Mr. Singh’s second term. The country’s federal auditor in 2012 said that the government lost as much as 1.86 trillion rupees ($30 billion) in potential revenue from 2004 to 2011 because it had granted coal-block licenses without competitive bidding. The auditor’s report prompted the start of criminal investigation into the allocations.
India’s Supreme Court last September canceled 204 coal-mining licenses—accounting for almost all of the coal blocks allotted since 1993—saying they were granted illegally.
Mr. Modi’s government, which came to power in May, promised a transparent process of competitive bidding. So far, it has auctioned 32 coal-mining licenses, fetching the government nearly two trillion rupees in potential revenue.
The summons relates to the allocation of coal-mining rights for a block in the eastern state of Orissa in 2005 to a joint venture that included aluminum-manufacturing company Hindalco Industries, which is a part of Aditya Birla.
The 75-page court order traces months of meetings and communications of Mr. Singh, who was also in charge of the coal ministry at that time, a variety of officials under him, and Mr. Birla.
The order alleges that Mr. Singh may have participated in a conspiracy to grant the rights to Hindalco over the recommendations of a panel of government officials that preferred the state-run company Neyveli Lignite Corp.
The order cites two letters by Mr. Birla to the then-prime minister, in which Mr. Birla presses Mr. Singh to pick his company. It also points to repeated reminders from Mr. Singh’s office to the coal ministry for a quick response to Mr. Birla’s letter. The court order said this suggests “extra undue interest” on Mr. Singh’s part.
Explaining his decision to summon the former prime minister, Judge Bharat Parashar said that “a concerted effort was being made to manipulate the entire government machinery” to protect Hindalco’s interests and that the prime minister’s office and coal ministry appear to have been part of the “well-planned and well-designed exercise.”
Making a specific reference to Mr. Singh’s actions, the order alleges he caused the government a loss while facilitating “windfall profits” for Mr. Birla’s company.
The allegations could tarnish Mr. Singh’s legacy and his party’s credibility. A Congress leader said Wednesday that the party’s image had taken yet another setback, though she said the allegations made in the court order are incorrect.
“It’s one more whiplash for us after many that we have taken,” the leader, Renuka Chowdhury, said. “We are distressed at this turn of events, but I’m sure we’ll weather this as well.”
—Joanna Sugden contributed to this article.