Former Assam DGP Shankar Barua shot himself to death on Wednesday, 20 days after the CBI searched his residence in connection with the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. ALSO READ: Assam ex-DGP Barua was an upright officer: Tarun Gogoi Barua shot himself with his personal licenced revolver on the terrace of his two-storeyed house at Barowari in Uzanbazar, a posh locality in Guwahati. He was taken to a private hospital nearby where doctors declared him as ‘brought dead’. A post-mortem examination conducted at the GMC Hospital here found that the bullet, fired from point-blank range, had pierced the right temple. Sources close to the family said Barua was suffering from depression since the CBI raided his house and had to be hospitalised twice. Guwahati City SSP A P Tiwari said Barua shot himself around 12.30 pm, one hour after he was released from a hospital where he was admitted three days ago. ALSO READ: Houses of Assam ex-ministers among 12 premises raided A 1974-batch IPS officer who served as DGP from July 2009 to January 2012, Barua came under the CBI scanner after the main accused in the Saradha scam, Sudipta Sen, named him during interrogation. Sen is alleged to have told interrogators that he used to pay Barua regularly for giving his business “legal protection in an illegal way”. Following this, the CBI raided Barua’s house on August 28. The CBI also examined Barua’s bank account and locker at the SBI Chenikuthi branch. ALSO READ: Named as Saradha beneficiary, Didi’s brother says ‘canards’ A senior CBI official said, “We had evidence against him which led a search operation at his residence. However, we were yet to interrogate him. We were examining other people from Assam in connection with the scam. We were about to summon him. But before that he committed suicide.” Sources said after being released from Downtown Hospital around 11. 30 am, Barua first went home. From there he went to the SBI branch across the road at Uzanbazar and reportedly changed nominees for his account. Then he returned home and shot himself. Sources said Barua had come to know that he might be summoned soon by the CBI. He was disturbed after former Bengal DG of armed police Rajat Majumdar, who was summoned for interrogation for the second time by CBI, was arrested last week. On September 12, the CBI had arrested Barua’s close friend and well-known Guwahati-based filmmaker and singer Sadananda Gogoi in connection with the scam. Gogoi had allegedly introduced Sudipta Sen to several influential persons in Assam, Barua. Son of former Assam IGP Bhabani Barua, the former DGP was among five persons whose properties were searched by the CBI connection with the Saradha scam on August 28. The others included former Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, senior Congress MLA Anjan Dutta, managing director of the now defunct Frontier TV Manoranjana Sinh, and Sadananda Gogoi. Over the past seven days, several prominent and influential people, including top police officers and bureaucrats, across West Bengal, Assam and Orissa have faced CBI questioning in connection with the chit fund scam.
