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NEW DELHI: India’s textiles minister has resigned, a source in the prime minister’s office said on Thursday, a day after police said they were investigating him for his role in a multi-billion dollar telecoms corruption scandal.
Dayanidhi Maran's resignation comes ahead of a cabinet reshuffle that may happen as early as next week.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was under pressure to drop him to signal a tough stance against a raft of graft cases that have emerged in recent months.
Maran, a former telecoms minister from leading government ally DMK party, declined to make any comment when television reporters asked him if he had left the cabinet.
Maran is being investigated on accusations he coerced the founder of mobile phone firm Aircel to sell off his stake to a firm that a lawsuit alleges was favoured by the minister in a separate case.
Maran has denied the charges.
Singh's second term has been hit by a series of graft scandals that have sparked off public anger and paralysed policymaking, diverting the government's attention from nurturing flagging economic growth and pushing forward reforms.
Topping the list are charges that Maran's party colleague Andimuthu Raja, as telecoms minister during 2007/08, flouted rules and accepted bribes to favor some firms when they sought lucrative mobile phone licences. Raja is in jail pending trial.
India may have lost $39 billion in revenue on that scandal, a sum equivalent to the annual defence budget, the state auditor has said. Maran is being investigated as part of a broader probe into wrongdoing over a decade.
The scandal has also strained relations between ruling Congress party and DMK, but few expect the smaller party to pull out of government.
