Court grants regular bail to IAS officer Gautam Goswami

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 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, the court added.

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

Mr Goswami has been 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.

After evading arrest for a long time, Mr Goswami had surrendered before the designated vigilance court on June 30 and was sent to the jail. The vigilance court had earlier decalred Mr Goswami as an absconder and had issued procalamation order followed by property attachment orders.

Later on May 20 last year, the state government announced cash prize of Rs one lakh to the informer sharing whereabouts of senior IAS officer, and a red cornor notice across the country was also issued against him.

The government had served showcause notice to Mr Goswami as he had joined Sahara group of companies as senior vice-president even before the acceptance of his resignation in early January, 2005.

The government also initiated disciplinary action and departmental proceedings against him.

Mr Goswami, who resigned on January one, 2005, withdrew his resignation from the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) on June 19, 2005.

Later talking to newsmen, Mr Goswami, who had got a place on the cover page of the "Times" magazine for his commendable work in the flood releif, said prestige and pride were only his assets and Bank balance. He had also mentioned about his financial credibility, saying name and fame, prestiege and dignity were a few things he had earned during his service period. Only to earn fame and prove his worth, Mr Goswami said he joined a reputed firm after resigning from IAS. The resignation was effective from January one, 2005.

About the relief operation he said it was a team work carried out under direct supervision and guidance of higher functionaries and was not done single handedly and each and every decision was taken with the consent of the higher authorities.

As per the petition no authority ever found the relief work faulty. Every decision was taken collectively and not at his personal level.

He had stated that in the wake of the vast dimension of the calamity the government relaxed the laid rules and regulations for carrying out the relief work.

Through the petition, Mr Goswami pleaded before the court that he had been implicated in the flood relief scam under a well-hatched conspiracy. He apprehended that the related documents, including vouchers and bills, might have been either tampered or pilferred.

Being nodal officer, Mr Goswami said he had issued a written order for preserving the documents in safe custody.

Mr Goswami apeared perturbed with the media trial as he had mentioned that media projeted him just like a traitor as if he was a seasoned defalcator.

The petition of the then DM of Patna had said the higher authorities had ordered in writing the best aaccommodation for the pilots, who had come here to airlift the relief materials and following the written direction they were accommodated in good hotels.

Following a report by a former DM of Patna Sudhil Kumar, the then Governor of Bihar Buta Singh had handed over the probe of the scam to the vigilance which in its chargesheet had made 28 people, including Mr Goswami, Santosh Jha, Nidhi Jha, Branch manager of IDBI Sanjay Jha, an employee of the same branch Shailendra Kumar, Managing Director of Bihar Laghu Udyog Vikas Nigam Mukteshwar Prasad and an assistant of the corporation Amlendu Kumar Choudhry, and an ADM rank officer Vasudev Das, and others accused in the scam.

RJD MP Aniruddh Prasad Yadav alias Sadhu Yadav was also made one of the asccused in the related case. He, however, was later granted bail by Patna High Court.

Some of the prominent accused of the scam case were in the judicial custody.

UNI