Will resign if asked to: Puducherry Lt Governor Iqbal Singh

(Updates) New Delhi/ Puducherry, Apr 17 (PTI) Facing Enforcement
Directorate 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 here.
Singh, a former Congress Member of Parliament, 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 All India Anna Dravida
Munnettra Kazhagam (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 (Indian Administrative Service) officer in
UP (Uttar Pradesh) 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 Indian 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."