SC closes case against former PM Manmohan Singh in coal block allocation caseThe Supreme Court closed the coal block allocation case against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, accepting the CBI’s closure reports and quashing the summoning order. The top court said there was no reason for the trial court judge to turn down closure reports of CBI and take cognisance. As a result, we accept the closure reports of CBI and close the matter,” the bench said. Singh, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, ex-coal secretary P C Parakh and three others were summoned as accused by a special court in a coal scam case pertaining to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005. Singh questioned the absence of the mandated sanction for prosecuting public officials like him, and denied any criminality in his decision concerning the coal block allocation.