Monday, September 12 2005 14:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Retired IAS officer D P Maheshwari, who is serving as the State Election Commissioner at present, today (Sept 12, 2005) surrendered before the court of the designated CBI judge R N Sharma following a non-bail able warrant of arrest against him in connection with the multi-crore bitumen scam.

Maheshwari, former Road Construction department's secretary-cum-commissioner, gave himself up before the special judge this morning and moved his application for regular bail.

The hearing on his petition for bail was in progress.

Sharma had on September nine issued non-bail able warrants of arrest against Maheshwari, besides a superintending engineer of the Road Construction department Janardan Sharma, in connection with the scam.

Soon after his retirement, Maheshwari was appointed the State Election Commissioner, responsible for holding elections to panchayat and local bodies in the state, in 2002.

Former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) minister for Road Construction, Iliyas Hussain is also an accused in the case which relates to rampant irregularities in supply and purchase of bitumen worth lakhs from the oil companies by the Road Construction department.