PATNA, JUNE 30 The Patna District Magistrate, IAS top-ranker, Time magazine’s Asian Hero, prime accused in the siphoning of crores money meant for the homeless and the marooned, Gautam Goswami’s run ended today.His face ashen, his eyes bleary, Goswami walked into the rear of a Gypsy that took him to Beur jail this morning around 9.25 am, after he surrendered in the multi-crore-rupee flood relief scam exposed by The Indian Express.

After first popping up at a press conference in New Delhi and then in a TV studio to deny the allegations, Goswami went under cover for more than a month.

He surrendered in the Vigilance Court in Patna, after the Patna High Court yesterday rejected his anticipatory bail plea. The court sent him to judicial custody for 14 days but the investigating agency has already asked for his custodial interrogation.

‘‘We are hopeful that the court will grant him into our custody,’’ said A K Singh, SP (Vigilance). Singh said that his team had ‘‘mounted pressure’’ on Goswami who had no option but to surrender.

Incidentally, a year ago, Singh, as SP (Traffic) had once reported to Goswami who was then District Magistrate.

Then came the floods that killed 800 and displaced lakhs. Relief meant for the victims flowed into private hands: Goswami, who was the nodal officer for relief operations, allegedly paid money to fake firms and dubious contractors, bought two properties for which he paid more than Rs 50 lakh. Ironically, he walked into jail today for the same relief work for which Time called him an Asian Hero.

As early as 7.30 am, he reached the court riding pillion on a bike, his face covered with a towel. As word spread that Goswami was surrendering, the media flocked to the civil court premises. By this time, he was inside the court.

After his lawyer moved the surrender application, Goswami was moved to a room nearby to finish the formalities of surrender and judicial custody.

All this time he sat without facing the cameras. It took nearly two hours before Goswami walked out, for the police vehicle that would take him to jail. He had added a moustache to his familiar clean-shaven face. ‘‘You would like to say something?’’ someone asked him. ‘‘Ask my lawyer,’’ was all he would say.

Sources told The Indian Express that Goswami had been in Patna this week but shuttled between Dhanbad and Asansol over the last one month.

After the High Court rejected his bail plea, he decided to surrender, said his lawyer Tuhin Shanker. With his surrender, most of the key accused in the scam that swallowed nearly Rs 18 crore are behind bars. These include: M Prasad, former director Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation (BSSIC, the firm whose intials were used to float a dummy company Baba Satya Sai Industries into which the money came); S K Jha, Manager of IDBI Bank in Patna. Santosh Kumar Jha, who managed the fake BSSIC account, is also in jail. Amit, a computer operator in Goswami’s office who made a fortune off the scam is still absconding and Vigliance sleuths expect him to surrender in the next few days.