Summons to Manmohan Singh, Kumar Mangalam Birla is negative for business: Adi Godrej

NEW DELHI: Surprised at a special CBI court summoning former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Hindalco chief Kumar Mangalam Birla as accused in coal block case, industry captain Adi Godrej today said such developments neither bode well for investment nor create a good atmosphere.

"I am surprised ex-prime minister and Kumar Mangalam Birla have been summoned as an accused because they had a meeting. It is not uncommon for senior industrialists to meet a minister or even a Prime Minister when an important matter needs to be discussed," Godrej Group Chairman Adi Godrej told a private television channel in an interview.

He further said: "If you keep summoning everybody as an accused, businesses will get disheartened and wouldn't want to invest in that country....It doesn't create a good atmosphere."

"I hoped it is brought to an end at an early point," he added.

The court had summoned Singh along with industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, ex-coal secretary PC Parakh and three others as accused in a case pertaining to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005 and asked them to appear before it on April 8.