New Delhi, Saturday 26 December 2009: Left embarrassed by the sex scandal involvement allegations Andhra Pradesh Governor ND Tiwari resigned from his post on Saturday.

Tiwari has sent his resignation to President Pratibha Patil citing health reasons. Earlier in the day, the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre was mulling action against the Andhra Pradesh Governor.

Sources had said that action against Tiwari was expected as early as this evening but he resigned to escape further embarrassment after a report which was asked from the Andhra Pradesh government on the matter.

Governor Tiwari had yesterday denied media reports alleging his involvement in a sex scandal and termed them “malicious” even as women’s groups held demonstrations outside his official residence in Hyderabad demanding his resignation.

Ravi Shankar, Tiwari’s lawyer told a news channel that the allegations were “a tissue of lies” and they had slapped a legal notice on the media house that telecast clips purportedly showing the Governor in compromising position along with three young women in his bedroom.

ABN channel, owned by Telugu daily Andhra Jyothi, telecast the story in the morning to shocked viewers. The channel quoted Radhika, a woman from Uttarakhand, as saying that she sent the young women to the Raj Bhavan on Tiwari’s request through his aide.

The woman said she was exposing the Governor as he failed to provide her an iron ore mining licence in Andhra Pradesh. The state High Court later issued an order restraining the channel from telecasting the “demeaning” story.

The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader N Chandrababu Naidu has also sought the 86-year-old Tiwari’s resignation for “unbecoming conduct”. The BJP too has demanded that Tiwari quit from the constitutional post.

(News Agency)