A special Court in Delhi today directed the CBI to record statements of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and others in a coal blocks allocation scam case allegedly involving former Coal Secretary P C Parakh and industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla. Dr Singh was holding the portfolio of Coal Ministry when Birla’s firm Hindalco was allocated coal blocks in Orissa’s Talabira II and III in 2005. Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar refuesd to accept the agency's closure report and directed it to file status report of its further probe in the case on the 27th of January.

On 25th November, CBI had come in for some tough questioning from the court which had asked why the agency did not question Dr Manmohan Singh as his statement was necessary to present a clear picture. Responding to this, the Investigating Officer told the court that the officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) were examined during the probe and Dr Singh was not permitted to be examined.