Karnataka Excise Minister HY Meti on Wednesday resigned from the state Cabinet two days after he was accused of seeking sexual favours from a woman, ANI reported. Meti was inducted into the Cabinet in June 2016 after a major reshuffle. The 71-year-old minister is considered to be a close aide of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (pictured above).

The issue came to light when an RTI activist Rajashekhar Mulali had said he possessed an audio clip where Meti’s aide is allegedly heard threatening him against releasing a CD of the minister in a compromising position. Besides this, on December 11, a woman working in the Ayush department had claimed Meti sought sexual favours from her in return for a transfer.

However, the woman had later backtracked on Tuesday, saying she was forced to make false charges against Meti by unidentified men, Deccan Chronicle reported. Initially, RTI activist Mulali also said he was being stalked by Meti’s men for the past ten days. However, Deccan Chronicle later reported that Mulali said he does not have any such CD.

On Sunday, Meti had rejected the allegations against him and termed the entire episode a political conspiracy to malign him. He challenged the existence of such a CD and said it should be released, in which case he would resign from his post. “Let them release the CD. I have not done anything wrong... I am old, does that mean I cannot sleep? A video can be taken anywhere, even inside my house when I am with my wife,” he was quoted as saying by Economic Times.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had asked Meti to come clean on the alleged scam, adding that the minister will have to resign if any such CD is released, The New Indian Express reported. “I will not tolerate such shameful conduct as it goes against my own ethical values too,” Siddaramaiah told mediapersons.