The main accused in the multi-crore Bihar flood-relief scam spent Rs 2 lakh on coffee and Rs 11 lakh on Mughali food in the name of working for flood relief operations.
This was revealed in official documents prepared by Gautam Goswami, then Patna district magistrate and another accused.
In the official documents, which were seized by state vigilance department officials probing the scam, Goswami has mentioned that Ambika Coffee House was paid Rs 2 lakh for supplying coffee.
Sources in the Patna DM's office told rediff.com on Sunday that officials involved in relief operations consumed coffee like water. "They sipped hot coffee without bothering about lakhs of people who were marooned in flood-hit districts, where they did not even have drinking water," said sources.
Apart from coffee, the officials consumed Mughlai chicken, murg musallam, chicken biriyani, which cost the government Rs 11.70 lakh. The amount was paid to a restaurant at Patna Airport. "During the relief operations, the Airport was where all the officials headed because it was from there that choppers were flying to distribute relief to people," said officials.
Goswami, a 1992 batch Indian Administrative Service officer and former Patna district magistrate, along with Santosh Kumar Jha and three others, is accused of defalcation and diversion of funds meant for flood relief in the state.
