The home ministry has started investigation after receiving complaints of alleged sexual misconduct against the governor of a key South Indian state.

According to the complaints, the governor allegedly sought sexual favours from women staff at the Raj Bhavan. The ministry, however, has not yet commented on the identity of the governor concerned, reported The Times of India and The Sunday Guardian.

The newspapers, however, could not confirm whether the charges against the governor pertain to his earlier stint in another state or are related to his fresh tenure. Highly placed sources told The Sunday Guardian that the Centre is taking the matter very seriously, and is attempting to find out whether any kind of incriminating CD or MMS had been made regarding the governor’s misdemeanour.

In January last year, then Meghalaya governor V Shanmuganathan was asked to resign after complaints of a similar nature were received against him. Nearly 100 Raj Bhavan staff in Shillong petitioned then President Pranab Mukherjee, the prime minister and Union home minister Rajnath Singh seeking their intervention to remove the governor and restore the dignity of Raj Bhavan. They alleged that Shanmuganathan had “seriously compromised the dignity of the Raj Bhavan and made it a ‘young ladies club’. “It has become a place where young ladies come and go at will on direct orders of the Governor... Many of them have direct access to his bedroom.”

Similarly, in December 2009, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari had to step down as the governor of Andhra Pradesh after serious charges of sexual perversion against him.