Court sends ‘ill’ Goswami to 5-day vigilance custody

At Beur jail, the former DM spent the night at the jail hospital away from other prisoners after he complained of fever and hypertension.

He was reportedly served lunch in the official chamber of the Jail Superintendent last afternoon. He did not eat anything and was restless during his time in jail. He later took pills to sleep.

Sources said the jail hospital room where Goswami was kept had a fan and a cot. Laloo Prasad and Jagannath Mishra were put up at the same room when they were jailed in connection with the fodder scam.

Beur Jail Superintendent Dilip Kumar Singh says he has strictly followed the jail manual and treated the former DM like any other prisoner. But asked if Goswami was kept in the special ward at the jail hospital, he said: “I cannot comment on that.”

Earlier, the vigilance court rejected the plea of Goswami’s lawyer that he should be allowed to be present during interrogation. But the judge told the Vigilance department to provide all medical help to the former DM.

Goswami, who has been charged with “fraud, forgery and cheating”, surrendered yesterday after being on the run for nearly a month after The Indian Express exposed the scam. He has been accused of siphoning nearly Rs 18 crore meant for flood relief when he was the nodal officer in charge of flood relief operations.

Meanwhile, the special court today rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of two accused. Amitav Arun, a computer programmer in the Patna collectorate, and Brahamachari Upendra Mittra, a movement controller during flood relief operations, had their pleas rejected. Both have been evading arrest.

Most of the key accused are behind bars. These include M. Prasad, former Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation director, S.K. Jha, former manager of IDBI Bank in Patna and politician-cum-contractor Santosh Kumar Jha.