Minister quits after bribe claims

Mr Judeo says he was set up

An Indian Government minister has resigned following bribery allegations in a leading newspaper.

Junior Environment Minister Dilip Singh Judeo denies accepting money from a mining company.

Sunday's Indian Express published photographs of him apparently accepting banknotes from a man in a hotel room.

Mr Judeo, a member of the ruling BJP, says the pictures were fabricated and has accused the opposition of trying to defame him ahead of elections.

The Indian Express insists the man in the grainy photographs is Mr Judeo.

It has defended its decision to publish the pictures, saying it had verified their contents.

But in a news conference Mr Judeo accused the chief minister of the central state of Chhatisgarh, Ajit Jogi, of trying to damage his image.

Chattisgarh faces elections next month and Mr Judeo is one of the BJP leaders challenging Mr Jogi.

Political row

On Monday, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee accepted Mr Judeo's resignation, and forwarded it to the president.

It is a policy of my government to carry out an open probe into all charges of corruption and an inquiry is already being conducted Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee

Earlier a BJP spokesman, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, said the video was "doctored, fabricated and manipulated".

He said the BJP wanted India's independent Election Commission to investigate and establish whether the video was authentic.

This is the second time that a minister in the current Indian Government has been at the centre of a bribery scandal involving a secretly filmed sting operation.

Nearly three year ago, an Indian news website taped secret video footage of senior politicians, bureaucrats and Indian army officers apparently taking money in connection with a defence deal.

The scandal forced the resignation of the then BJP president, Bangaru Laxman, and the Defence Minister, George Fernandes.

Mr Fernandes has since been reinstated.