Shankar Barua

Guwahati, Sept. 17: Shankar Barua, a former director-general of Assam police who was questioned in the Saradha case by the CBI, died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound today a few hours after dropping by a neighbourhood bank branch to which the investigators had taken him last month.

The suspected suicide at the Guwahati home of Barua, who hailed from an accomplished family of civil servants, came 20 days after the premises were searched by a CBI team probing the Saradha scandal.

On August 28, Barua had also been asked to accompany CBI officials to the Chenikuthi branch of the State Bank of India (SBI), right across the road from his home, where records of some transactions were checked.

The CBI had so far not publicly accused Barua of any wrongdoing. The CBI expressed its condolences this evening and added that Barua had been neither examined nor summoned by the agency.

However, sources in Delhi said the CBI was preparing to make more arrests. A publisher of a now-defunct newspaper had claimed at a media conference in April last year that “in case the Saradha Group faced any problem, Sadananda Gogoi (a singer arrested last week in the case) would sort it out with the help of Shankar Barua who was then DGP”. Barua was Assam DGP from 2009 to 2012.

On September 13, the former DGP, who has reportedly under stress after the CBI search, was admitted to a Guwahati hospital in a “semi-conscious” state, sources said. He stayed in hospital for five days and was discharged around 9.30 this morning.

According to family friends, Barua, on his way back from the hospital, stopped by at the SBI branch before reaching home.

At Manikut, the 1974 batch IPS officer’s home at Barowari near Gauhati High Court, he had had a plate of noodles before going up to a room on the terrace of the two-storey building. There he allegedly shot himself in the head with a revolver.

His younger son Kaushik ran up on hearing the gunshot and found Barua slumped in a sofa with the revolver lying on the ground, a family friend said.

The incident, senior superintendent of police A.P. Tiwari said, took place close to noon. Barua’s body was first taken to a hospital, around 2km from his home, where he was declared dead. His body was then taken to Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) for post-mortem.

A police officer who visited Barua’s home said it appeared to be a case of suicide. But SSP Tiwari said: “We have recovered a .32 calibre revolver, five live rounds and one spent cartridge from the place of occurrence. What happened and how, we will come to know after investigations.”

No suicide note has been found, sources said.

After the post-mortem at 4pm at GMCH, Barua’s body was taken in a marigold-bedecked hearse to the headquarters of the 4th Assam Police Battalion for a ceremonial salute. The body was taken to his home and then to the cremation ground at Nabagraha. The last rites were performed by his older son Siddharth around 7.30pm.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi described Barua’s death as “unfortunate”. “He was an upright and efficient police officer who discharged his duties conscientiously and assiduously,” the chief minister said.

On August 28, after the CBI search, Barua had remained reticent. In response to questions on the search, he had said while exiting the SBI branch: “No comments.”

When reporters asked again if he had any comment on the allegations levelled against him, Barua had said: “Ask the CBI, ask those who have brought the allegations (against me)….”

Barua’s father Bhabani Barua was an inspector-general of police in Assam, a rank that in the past was equivalent to that of a DGP. His elder brother Bhaskar Barua is a retired IAS officer.

Shankar Barua is survived by his wife, his mother and two sons. Siddharth is a Delhi-based lawyer while his younger son Kaushik works for the United Nations in Rome and is a writer. Kaushik recently won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for his debut novel Windhorse. Shankar Barua’s wife Nilakshi is a retired English teacher.

The CBI, in a media release on August 28, had said that 14 premises had been searched during the day. Apart from Shankar Barua’s home, the premises included that of former Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma; the office of Newslive, a Guwahati-based television channel headed by Biswa Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma; Sadananda; Anjan Dutta, a Congress MLA; and Sankar Prasad Rai, the president of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU).

Sadananda was later called by the CBI to Calcutta for further questioning, and arrested on September 12.

It has been alleged that Sadananda was the link between Saradha boss Sudipta Sen on the one hand and Himanta Biswa Sarma and Shankar Barua on the other.

Dibon Deka, the publisher of a Bengali daily Saradha had brought out in Guwahati, had named the former DGP at a media conference last year.