The Patna High Court on Friday granted bail to former Patna District Magistrate Gautam Goswami in the multi-crore flood relief scam exposed by The Indian Express. The high-profile IAS officer who has been languishing in jail for more than a year is likely to be freed on Tuesday.

Goswami was released by the court primarily because trial in the case was yet to begin despite his long detention. Goswami had surrendered on June 30, 2005. The Vigilance Department probing the case had filed chargesheets in August last year.

The sanction for prosecuting Goswami, still pending with the Union Government, has delayed commencement of the trial. Sanction from the Centre’s Personnel Department is mandatory to prosecute an IAS officer under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Goswami’s counsel Tuhin Shankar said the sanction was still pending due to the failure of the investigating agency.

When contacted, Vigilance Assistant Director General Neelmani however held the Centre responsible for the delay. “We had applied for the sanction more than a year back. In between, we had also clarified some routine queries made by the Personnel Department. But despite that it is still pending,” Neelmani told The Indian Express.

He said they wanted speedy trial in the case, but were helpless.

Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad granted bail to Goswami on three grounds: long detention, trial not started and the pending sanction of prosecution from the Centre.

The scam involves siphoning of Rs 16 crore meant for providing flood relief to people in the state. Goswami, the then DM of Patna, along with contractor Santosh Jha, were accused of embezzling the relief money. The State Vigilance Department probed the case after The Indian Express exposed the scam. Scam kingpin Santosh Jha is still behind the bars.