Friday, June 10 2005 12:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: The judicial remand of six of the accused in the multi-crore flood relief scam, including its alleged kingpin Santosh Kumar Jha, was extended by another 14 days by a special court.

Designated vigilance judge Jitendra Mohan Prasad extended till June 23 their judicial remand when the six were produced before him by the Beur jail authorities.

Besides Jha, the other five are IDBI Bank Patna branch manager Sanjay Kumar Jha, employee Shailendra Kumar, the then managing director of Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation (BSSIC) Mukteshwar Prasad, employee Amlendu Choudhury and the then Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of Patna Basudeo Prasad.

Vigilance sleuths arrested them during raids on their premises in Patna on May 28, the day the bureau had registered the FIR against former Patna District Magistrate Gautam Goswami and 27 others. They are in judicial custody since then. Jha was remanded to judicial custody on June 1 after he surrendered before the court.

The FIR has been lodged under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act charging Goswami and others with fraud, siphoning off Government funds, criminal conspiracy and others.

Meanwhile, vigilance officials carried out search operations at different residential premises of Santosh Jha and were believed to have identified at least four houses/flats in Patna that are allegedly owned by Jha.

The probe team was also learnt of a cinema hall in Madhubani that Jha had purchased for Rs 60 lakh. ''Documents are being verified,'' vigilance department sources said.