Bail to IAS officer Gautam Goswami granted

Patna, Nov 10: Patna High Court today granted regular bail to the incarcerated senior IAS officer and former District Magistrate of Patna Gautam Goswami in connection with the multicrore flood relief scam case.

Granting bail to Mr Goswami, a single bench of the court of justice Mr Chandramauli Kumar Prasad said Mr Goswami had spent long time in custody even without trial in the case.

The Central government had not yet sanctioned the prosecution of the IAS officer under prevention of corruption act and in such circumstances it was fit to grant bail to Mr Goswami.

Earlier, the court had rejected the regular bail application of Mr Goswami two months back.

Mr Goswami was languishing in the Beur Central jail since June 30, 2005.

He had become talk of the town after his publication of his photograph on the cover page of the prestigious "Times" magazine in 2005.

UNI