Hum kya karen, ask cops, as they cool their heels in Lucknow hotel

Finding the house isn’t difficult. The Indian Express tracked down Goswami’s Lucknow address to a first-floor flat barely 500 m from the Sahara office where he worked. He lived for six months in this house in Lucknow’s Aliganj area. Just after the Bihar Flood Scam was first exposed by The Sunday Express on April 24, he packed his bags and left.

Since May 1, there’s been a new tenant. ‘‘We still keep getting letters with Goswami’s name. But we never saw him. There was his name-plate Gautam Goswami, IAS, we threw it out,’’ said a 20-year-old woman who lives there. Landlord I H Hashmi lives in Delhi and has locked the ground floor.

As for the two Bihar inspectors, their address, as of now, is Room 108 of Lucknow’s Vishwanath Hotel. Chandrika Prasad says they have ‘‘instructions’’ to find out Goswami or stay put in Lucknow until he is arrested or he surrenders. ‘‘We may be here for even a month. We hope he surrenders like Santosh Jha. Kahan tak bhage hum Goswami ke pichhe. Aam aadmi hi dundhna mushkil hai, yeh to DM reh chuke hain,’’ the inspector added.

Said his colleague Inspector Lal Bahadur: ‘‘How can we find him when even the Lucknow Police don’t know a thing? They told us we cannot enter Sahara City to find out if Goswami is there. We did go to the Sahara office but the receptionist said no one will tell us anything about Goswami as he carried a reward on his head now.’’

The two inspectors say they plan to meet the Personnel head of Sahara tommorow. ‘‘We met the Lucknow SSP, SP (Trans-Gomti) and some other officials but they have been of little help. We will move an official request for getting the local address of Goswami and any of his local contacts. Hope we get it. That will help us reach Goswami or at least get some leads,’’ says Inspector Prasad.