Was plea to summon ex-PM filed ‘simply for fun’: Court to Koda

Did you want to summon former PM Manmohan Singh "simply for fun?" a special court on Monday asked ex-Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda after taking exception to alleged inconsistencies in his submissions regarding conspiracy in a coal block allocation scam case. "Was it simply for fun that you had moved that papplication for summoning the former PM?" Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar asked Koda's counsel when he was arguing on framing of charges in the case. The court asked this after Koda's counsel Anshuman Sinha argued that there was no conspiracy as alleged by CBI in its charge sheet in the case. "Please co-relate your that application (in which he had sought summoning of Manmohan Singh and two others as accused in the case) with the arguments on framing of charges now. You had then said there was a conspiracy but now you are saying there was no conspiracy," the court noted.

Responding to the court's query, Koda's counsel said that while arguing on the plea to summon Singh as an accused, he had only said that as per CBI's case there was a conspiracy.   

"I have only said that if at all there was any conspiracy then he (Singh) should be called as well. CBI cannot have different yardsticks," he told the court.