Monday, June 27 2005 13:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: The Patna High Court today (Jun 27, 2005) adjourned for Wednesday (Jun 29, 2005) on technical grounds the hearing of the anticipatory bail petition of former Patna district magistrate Gautam Goswami, evading arrest in connection with the multi-crore flood relief scam.

Justice Narayan Rai posted the matter for June 29 after asking the petitioner's counsel to attach an amended copy of FIR lodged by the State Vigilance Investigation Bureau against Goswami.

Vigilance advocate Y V Giri drew the court's attention to non-inclusion of papers related to ''substantial additions'' made by the Bureau on June 8 to the FIR against Goswami prompting the judge to direct the petitioner's counsel Ganesh Prasad Singh to append the paper in the petition and posted the matter for hearing on Wednesday, June 29.

This was the second adjournment in the hearing of Goswami's anticipatory bail petition in the HC.

Earlier on June 22 Justice Rai had adjourned the matter for hearing today.

The special vigilance court had already rejected Goswami's anticipatory bail application on June 6 following which he approached the HC on June 13.

Goswami, Time magazine awardee and an accused in the flood relief scam, is on the run ever since the special vigilance judge Jitendra Mohan Sharma issued non-bailable arrest warrants against him and eight others on May 31.

The vigilance sleuths had on Saturday (Jun 25, 2005) raided Goswami's two flats in the capital and another at Lucknow in search of the elusive former Patna DM.