PATNA, 5 June 2005 — Former Patna District Magistrate Gautam Goswami has been indicted by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report for Bihar for “grave irregularities” in flood relief operations in 2004.
His anticipatory bail plea in the multimillion rupee scam will now be heard tomorrow.
The administration’s functioning was criticized by the CAG report that has been cited in the FIR lodged by the state’s vigilance department.
According to this report, the check for flood relief materials that was supposed to be given to Bihar State Small Scale Industries (BSSSI) was actually written in the name of BSSI or Baba Satya Sai Industries. With this sleight of hand, Goswami received a sum of 135.4 million rupees.
Apart from this, Goswami was made the nodal officer for the distribution of relief materials. But the veracity of this statement has not been confirmed.
As the story of the Bihar flood relief scam continues to unravel, the one thing that’s becoming clear is that there has been a great deal of mismanagement.
Meanwhile, a special court yesterday adjourned till June 6 the hearing on Goswami’s anticipatory bail application.
Goswami has been charged with fraud, forgery, cheating and entering into criminal conspiracy by setting up fake firms to carry out relief for flood-hit people during 2004.
He had on Friday applied for anticipatory bail in connection with the scam.
