RK Shevgaonkar, who resigned as IIT Delhi Director last week
The government has denied that it pressured IIT Delhi director RK Shevgaonkar, whose resignation two years before his term was to end, was linked by a section of the media to matters involving cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
Mr Shevgaonkar submitted his resignation last week citing personal reasons, the chairman of IIT Delhi, Vijay Bhatkar, told NDTV on Sunday. The resignation will be forwarded to President Pranab Mukherjee, who is a Visitor to the IIT, or Indian Institute of Technology.
The Human Resource Development Ministry has denied a media report that the director quit over its two alleged directives - to facilitate land in the IIT campus for a cricket academy run by Sachin Tendulkar and to settle salary dues of Mr Swamy, who was once a part of the institute's faculty.
Mr Tendulkar strongly denied asking for any land, saying he was "appalled to read the stories." He tweeted on Sunday, "I have not even planned any academy neither do I want any piece of land for any purpose."
The government also denied receiving any request from the former cricketer.
It also said it has "neither forwarded Mr Swamy's request to IIT-Delhi nor given any direction to make payment of arrears" to him.
Mr Swamy has alleged that Mr Shevgaonkar resigned over a controversy involving an IIT campus in Mauritius.
"The Director was found to have gone to Mauritius in 2011 without telling the Government of India and set up an institute in the name of an affiliate, so an explanation was asked from him," the BJP leader was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.
An explanation was asked from the director, and, "in order to hide the facts that would certainly lead to termination of his directorship, he did it to make a political capital out of it", he alleged.