New Delhi, April 19
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has given its nod to allow the Enforcement Directorate to question Puducherry Lieut-Governor Iqbal Singh.

However, the directorate will not call, or summon the Lieut-Governor to its offices. Instead, a team of the ED will go to Puducherry to question him.

The Home Ministry had sought PMO’s clearance to the ED’s request to record statement of Iqbal Singh in connection with his recommendation for issuing passport to Hassan Ali Khan, a suspected money launderer.

Sources said Iqbal Singh would be quizzed later this week. The ED wanted to question him after his name cropped up during questioning of Bihar-based Congress leader Amlendu Pandey in connection with the recommendation for expeditious issuance of passport to Khan, a Pune stud farm owner who is facing tax-evasion and money-laundering charges.

Iqbal Singh has admitted to have recommended expeditious issuance of passport to Khan but claimed he never knew him. The Lieut-Governor had met Home Minister P Chidambaram and explained his position on the matter. “The Lieut-Governor is willing to make a statement to the ED,” Chidambaram had later stated.

53-year-old Khan, arrested last month, has been accused of stashing up to $8 billion in foreign banks. He is also being investigated for links with international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.

In 1997, Iqbal Singh was a Rajya Sabha MP from the Congress when he helped expedite a passport application of Khan.

In a letter sent to Union Home Minister last week, he claimed that he had asked for the passport to be granted on humanitarian grounds because he had been told that Khan needed to travel abroad urgently to visit his ailing brother.