Thursday, April 28 2005 21:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: At the centre of allegations over the multi-crore flood relief scam in Bihar, former District Magistrate of Patna Gautam Goswami today (Apr 28, 2005) sought to defend himself saying that he had authorised payment of Rs 17 crore to a private company on the basis of an authority letter from a State-owned corporation, the main supplier of relief materials.

He offered to face any probe in the alleged scam.

At a hurriedly convened press conference, Goswami claimed that the Bihar Small Scale Industries Development Corporation (BSSIDC) - which had won a tender to supply the materials - had issued a letter dated June 26, 2004, authorising the district administration to pay the money to its agents B K Singh and Sanjiv Kumar of Baba Satya Sai Industries (BSSI), Patna.

The money allotted to the district administration to buy relief materials was then paid through demand drafts and cheques to a bank account of BSSI and the Corporation was kept informed of all transactions, he claimed.

Goswami has been accused of siphoning off the money and Singh and Kumar were allegedly the main players in carrying out the scam.

"The letter even verified the signatures of B K Singh and Sanjiv Kumar and asked that they be given special permit to enter airport premises," he said.

Goswami, who was voted a hero by 'Time' magazine because of his work during the floods which devastated Bihar last year, had resigned from the Indian Administrative Service last December and joined as a vice-president in the Sahara Group.