The Bihar government has issued a show cause notice against former Patna district magistrate Gautam Goswami for joining a private company without being relieved from government service

The government, which moved against Goswami Monday night, is also likely to lodge first information reports (FIRs) soon against the former bureaucrat, named Asian Hero by Time magazine, for a multimillion rupee scam of siphoning money meant for victims of last year's floods.

Chief Secretary K.A.H. Subramanian said the show cause notice was issued against Goswami, who has joined the Sahara group, for violating service rules.

Maintaining that the government had not accepted Goswami's resignation and he was still an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official from the Bihar cadre, Subramanian said the centre had also sought a clarification from the state government in this regard.

The vigilance department is probing allegations that Rs.170 million meant for flood relief operations was diverted. "The vigilance investigation into the matter suggest huge bungling in funds for relief," he said.

Sources in the vigilance department said Goswami might be interrogated soon.

A few days ago, Governor Buta Singh had said he would not hesitate to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) if the vigilance probe was not satisfactory.

Time magazine had cited Goswami for his "brilliant work" over the years, notably for coordinating the flood relief and rescue operations last year when hundreds of people were killed and thousands rendered homeless in devastating floods.