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Multi-crore Bihar flood-relief scam man former Patna District Magistrate Gautam Goswami fails to run away to Nepal, surrenders – is he innocent?
He calls himself an escape goat. The authorities call him the con man. Accompanied by his lawyer, Tuhin Shankar, Goswami, who was declared wanted by the vigilance bureau probing the multi-crore fraud, drove to the court this morning and surrendered before the designated vigilance judge Jitendra Mohan Prasad.
Now the million dollar question comes – was this a systematic witch hunt in Bihar against bureaucrats who did not bow to local politicians. Was this a set up?
After being on the run for a month, former Patna District Magistrate Gautam Goswami on Wednesday gave himself up before the special court here which remanded him to judicial custody till July 6 in connection with the multi-crore Bihar flood-relief scam.
According to PTI. Goswami sat quietly on a bench inside the court when Shankar moved an application for accepting surrender of his client.
The judge remanded Goswami to judicial custody till July 6. Goswami would be lodged in the high-security Beur Jail on the outskirts of the state capital.
Goswami's surrender came a day after the Patna High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail application.
On a plea by Goswami’s lawyer for special care of his client in judicial custody as he was an IAS officer, the vigilance judge directed the Beur Jail authorities to provide facilities to Goswami in accordance with the jail manual and arrange for medicare.
The special vigilance court had rejected goswami's bail application on June 6 following which he had approached the HC on June 13.
Goswami, who shot into limelight after Time magazine named him among its Asian heroes, was on the run since the special vigilance court issued non-bailable arrest warrants against him and eight others on May 31 in connection with the Rs 17-crore flood relief scam.
The alleged kingpin of the scam Santosh Jha is currently lodged in the Beur Jail here in connection with the case.
Goswami, who resigned from the IAS in January last to join the Sahara Group of companies as its senior vice-president, had recently withdrawn his resignation but continued to be underground to avoid arrest.
The Sahara Group management had on June 6 terminated the services of Goswami after the vigilance bureau tightened its noose around him and threatened to take legal action against the management for not cooperating with it for Goswami’s arrest.
The bureau had already obtained proclamation notices against Goswami and others before formally attaching his property.
After raids on Goswami’s two flats in the state capital and a double-storey house in Lucknow, the bureau, which has announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to his arrest, had sealed one of the flats and the house on last Saturday.
Goswami's in-laws have claimed that the second flat in Patna was in their name.
The Income Tax Department had also attached the moveable and immoveable property of Goswami and others.
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