PATNA: The state vigilance bureau is still awaiting sanction from the authorities concerned for prosecuting former Patna DM Gautam Goswami, former Patna ADM Basudev Das and former executive magistrate of Patna Devendra Kumar in the flood-relief scam case.The bureau had sought sanction from the authorities concerned by August 16 for prosecuting government officials, including Goswami, in the case.
In Goswami���s case it had sought sanction from both the state government and the Union government.
The bureau has decided to file chargesheets against 11 key accused in the case within 90 days of the lodging of the FIR in connection with the scam to ensure that the accused do not get bail. Since it had registered the case in connection with the scam on May 28 last, it will have to file the chargesheets latest by August 26.Bureau ADG Neelmani said the investigating agency is still awaiting sanction from the authorities concerned for prosecuting the gazetted officers, including Goswami, who were allegedly involvement in the scam.It has so far received sanction for prosecuting only six accused. They are: two IDBI Bank officials in Patna ��� Sanjay Kumar Jha and Sajjad Ali ��� and four non-gazetted government employees, including Birendra Mahto and Parmeshwar Swarnkar.Neelmani said the bureau hopes to get sanction soon from the authorities concerned for prosecuting the gazetted officers. The investigating agency is in touch with the state law department in this regard, a bureau official said.The official indicated that the bureau may file chargesheets against 11 accused in the case by August 23-24 even if it does not get sanction from the authorities concerned for prosecuting the gazetted officers by that time. The bureau will file chargesheets against them in anticipation of getting the sanction soon, the official added.All the key accused in the scam case, including the alleged kingpin Santosh Kumar Jha and Goswami, are currently in the Beur central jail here.