Goswami loses bail plea, cops say he’s hiding in Varanasi

In fact, UP police sources told The Indian Express, which exposed the Bihar flood scam, that Goswami has been hiding in Varanasi for more than a week now.

‘‘But we do not have any written orders to catch him. I have only read in the papers that UP police has extended cooperation to Bihar officials in catching the ex-DM but I am still to receive any such orders from my superiors. Then, why should we go after him?’’ says Varanasi Senior Superintendent of Police, S N Sabat.

‘‘Goswami is also not wanted by us in any case and is not a criminal carrying a reward in our records,’’ says Sabat.

Goswami’s connection with Varanasi is eight years old, says Sabat. From 1982 to 1990, he was a student at the Banaras Hindu University where he completed his MBBS and MS with a gold medal to become a cardiologist.

It was from there that he achieved the 7th rank in the IAS merit list to join the 1991 batch. ‘‘He has spent eight long years here and has lots of doctor friends who can rally behind him. That is the reason he could be hiding here,’’ says the Varanasi SSP.

Sources say Goswami has been closeted with his doctor-friends and a battery of advocates in Varanasi to chart out his future course of action. He has also been seeking spiritual support from his religious guru there, they said.

‘‘Varanasi is just 200-odd kilometres from Patna by road. On Friday, he went from Varanasi by road to Patna to meet his advocate and sign papers of his anticipatory bail petition. He returned on Saturday,’’ says a top UP police official.

The Bihar Vigilance officers, meanwhile, say the hunt for Goswami seems to be stuck in Lucknow as his new employers the Sahara India group are ‘‘not cooperating.’’

‘‘The Sahara group has been totally non cooperative from the start. They have furnished no information to us regarding Goswami. We will put this in writing after we catch Goswami. As of now, we have no concrete clue as to where he is. You say it is Varanasi but if we knew where he was, we would have arrested him by now,’’ Bihar Vigilance Additional DGP, Neelmani told The Indian Express over the phone.

However, Abhijeet Sarkar, GM, Corporate Communications, Sahara, insists that the company has cooperated with Bihar police. ‘‘We have provided them with all details regarding Goswami—what his leave application says, his reasons for going on leave, etc. Otherwise, we have nothing to do with Goswami and Sahara is being unnecessarily dragged into this,’’ says Sarkar.

Back in Patna, Goswami’s lawyer Tuhin Shankar said his client would either surrender or move the High Court against the lower court’s order, rejecting the bail plea.

Designated Vigilance judge Jitendra Mohan Prasad, who earlier reserved his order on conclusion of arguments by Tuhin Shankar and senior public prosecutor of vigilance P P Singh, dismissed Goswami’s anticipatory bail petition.

Appearing on Goswami’s behalf, Shankar denied allegations of embezzlement and urged the court to grant his client bail as he was ready to fully cooperate with the vigilance bureau.

Special public prosecutor Singh said the Vigilance Bureau had enough evidence to prove the charges of embezzlement against Goswami and others and, therefore, his bail prayer be rejected.

Referring to the argument of the defense counsel that several other officials were involved in relief work, Singh showed a copy of payment of Rs two lakh made by Goswami to a fake firm ‘Ambika Coffee House’ for coffee from the funds allotted to him as Patna district magistrate-cum-nodal officer for relief for flood-hit victims in North Bihar in 2004.

‘‘The fund for relief was spent on purchasing coffee and that too from a firm which the Vigilance Bureau is yet to locate,’’ he said.

Singh said over Rs one lakh was also spent on using swimming pools. ‘‘It implies that the officials were not carrying out relief but having pleasure swimming,’’ he said.

He said cheques of several crores were also issued to a fake firm, Baba Satya Sai Industries (BSSI) instead of Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation (BSSIC) towards payment for managing relief.