bhopal

Updated: Feb 25, 2015 17:03 IST

Madhya Pradesh governor Ramnaresh Yadav is expected to resign by Wednesday evening after being booked in the multi-layered examination and recruitment scam, which would make him the biggest casualty of the most high-profile scandal to hit Madhya Pradesh.

Yadav is left with little choice after the Union home ministry sent a communication to the governor asking him to quit, sources said.

There was intense activity at the Governor House since Wednesday morning, though there was no official word on the latest developments in the professional examination board (PEB) scam.

The sources said there was a likelihood of Yadav putting in his papers by the end of the day.

In Delhi, officials confirmed that Yadav had been asked to quit and said the home ministry could take steps for his removal if he did not resign.

"If the governor, who is facing serious charges, refuses to quit, the home ministry may initiate the process for his removal," said a government official who did not want to be named.

"We hope that in keeping with maintaining the dignity of the high post he holds, the governor will put in papers," the official said.

On Tuesday, the special task force (STF) of Madhya Pradesh police, which is investigating the PEB scam, registered an FIR against Yadav and 100 others over alleged irregularities in a 2013 recruitment test for forest guards.

The governor was charged with recommending the names of three candidates for recruitment after allegedly taking Rs 4 lakh from each of them, officials said. Eighty-six candidates in the examination are also among the accused.

The governor’s is by far the biggest name in the scam that included the rigging of several recruitment and entrance tests conducted by the state government’s PEB in 2012 and 2013. The scam first emerged in July 2013 and more than 1,800 arrests have been made so far.

Sources in the Union home ministry said a message has been sent to Yadav that his position had become untenable in light of the FIR against him. The government official said the home ministry's position had been very clearly conveyed to ?Yadav – he would have to go.

The FIR against Yadav, a former leader of the Janata Party who joined the Congress and a former chief ? minister of Uttar Pradesh, was registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code, including section 420 for cheating. He was also been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The FIR was registered after the Madhya Pradesh high court, which is supervising the probe into the PEB scam, said on February 20 that the STF was free to take action against a “high dignitary” whose name figured in the scandal.

Yadav was appointed governor in 2011 and his tenure is set to end on September 2016.