Monday, June 6 2005 11:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Former Patna District Magistrate Gautam Goswami, who has been evading arrest in the multi-crore flood relief scam, today (Jun 6, 2005) suffered a jolt when a special court turned down his anticipatory bail application.

Designated Vigilance Judge Jitendra Mohan Prasad, who earlier reserved his order on conclusion of arguments by Goswami's lawyer Tuhin Shankar and senior public prosecutor of vigilance P P Singh, dismissed Goswami's anticipatory bail petition.

Soon after rejection of Goswami's petition, Shankar said his client would either surrender or move the superior court against the lower court's order.

Earlier, appearing on behalf of Goswami, Shankar denied allegations of embezzlement and urged the court to grant his client bail as he was ready to fully cooperate with the vigilance bureau.

"My client is also not likely to tamper with the evidence as he is no more a Government servant and is not likely to flee," Shankar said adding Goswami was also ready for interrogation whenever and wherever Vigilance bureau wanted.

Shankar said not only Goswami, there were several other officials involved in the relief work being carried out with the help of Army helicopters and boats and Goswami had followed the instructions issued by the disaster management department on the issue.

Special Public Prosecutor Singh said the Vigilance bureau had enough evidence to prove the charges of embezzlement against Goswami and others and therefore, his bail prayer be rejected.

Referring to the argument of the defence counsel that several other officials were involved in relief work, Singh showed a copy of payment of Rs two lakh made by Goswami to a fake firm "Amibika Coffee House" for coffee from the funds allocated to him as Patna district magistrate-cum-nodal officer for relief for flood-hit victims in North Bihar in 2004.

"The fund for relief was spent on purchasing coffee and that too from a firm which the vigilance bureau was yet to locate," he remarked.

Singh said besides over Rs 1 lakh was also spent on using swimming pools. "It implies that the officials were not carrying relief but having pleasure swimming," he said.

He said cheques of several crores of Rupees were also issued to a fake firm, Baba Satya Sai Industries (BSSI) instead of Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation (BSSIC) toward payment for managing relief.