Hasan Ali case: AIADMK demands recall of Puducherry LG

Puducherry, Apr 17: The opposition AIADMK today (April 17) demanded that the President recall Puducherry Lt Governor Iqbal Singh as he had been facing "several controversies" ever since his appointment to the post in 2009 including the one relating to the procurement of passport to Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan.

"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.

He said AIADMK would write to the President pleading for Singh's recall.

Facing ED summons for his alleged links with Hasan Ali Khan, Singh had yesterday written to the Union Home Minister admitting that he had recommended expeditious issue of passport to him but claimed he did not know him.

Singh, in a letter to Home Minister P Chidambaram here, who he met on Friday, said he had made the recommendation for Khan at the behest of a Bihar Congress leader.

PTI