New Delhi: Facing ED summons for his alleged links with suspected money launderer Hasan Ali Khan, Puducherry Lt Governor Iqbal Singh on Sunday said he is ready to resign from his post, if asked to, and also for any kind of inquiry by any authority.
"I'm ready for any kind of inquiry by any authority. If I'm asked to, I'm ready to resign from my post. But so far there is no indication from anyone," Singh told PTI.
Singh, a former Congress MP, said, "Enforcement Directorate or any other investigating agency has not approached me for any inquiry. If they come, I'll cooperate with them."
In Puducherry, the opposition AIADMK demanded that the President recall Iqbal Singh as he had been facing "several controversies" ever since his appointment to the post in 2009.
"The post of Lt Governor is a sacrosanct position in the Constitution. Any slur caused by its incumbent would be totally objectionable", AIADMK secretary of the Puducherry unit, A Anbalagan, told reporters urging the President to
recall Singh in the next two days "to save the constitutional sanctity" of the gubernatorial post.
"When an IAS officer in UP has been shifted from his present post in the wake of the allegations revolving around the Hasan Ali Khan passport issue, how can an incumbent of post of Lt Governor be let to go free even when he is in the eye of the storm in the issue", Anbalagan asked.
Singh has written to Home Minister P Chidambaram admitting that he had recommended expeditious issue of passport to Pune stud farm owner Khan but claimed he did not know him. Khan is facing tax evasion and money laundering charges.
Singh, who met Chidambaram on Friday, had said he had made the recommendation for Khan when he was a MP at the behest of a Bihar Congress leader.
"I have already clarified my position on my recommendation for issuing of passport to Hasan Ali. But why there is no investigation on other issues like where Hasan Ali travelled to, what was he doing in foreign land and whether he has kept any money abroad," Singh said.
"I have no relation with Hasan Ali, nor do I know him personally. My conscience is clear. I didn't do anything wrong," he said.
The Lt Governor said, "I was asked for a letter, I was given this letter. And a letter was made and given there.
Secondly, a response on it was received from I K Gujral (the then External Affairs Minister). If there is anything more than this in my name, as an MP if I have done anything, then I want to know what I have done.
"Whoever wants any kind of report from me, I'm ready to give. I have done nothing more than this," Singh said.
He said, "As an MP, I have given thousands of letters. I have copies of them."
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