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NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday offered to face the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or “for that matter anybody” in the decade-old coal scam probe, saying he has nothing to hide.
India’s opposition has been accusing the prime minister of involvement in the scam over the past week, after the filing of an First Information Report by the CBI against industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary P. C. Parakh in a coal block allocation case.
This is also the first time for him to break his silence over the controversy.
“I am not above the law of the land. If there is anything the CBI or, for that matter anybody, wants to ask me, I have nothing to hide,” he told local media on board his special plane on the way back from China.
The Prime Minister’s office last week said that the decision to allocate a coal block to Birla-headed Hindalco in Odisha was appropriate and there was nothing wrong.
The opposition said Singh was involved as he was coal minister at that time and he should subject himself to questioning by CBI. – Xinhua.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter