Peter Bleach leaves today, Alipore jail breathes easy

‘‘He is leaving for London tomorrow,’’ West Bengal Home Secretary Amit Kiran Deb said today.

‘‘These eight years have not been easy,’’ Bleach said yesterday. The statement is perhaps more true for Alipore Central Jail, having to cope with a ‘‘high-profile’’ prisoner backed by the British Deputy High Commission.

Bleach was allowed a small radio with cassette player, which could play but not record. On January 31, when Jail Superintendent R.P. Bhattacharya walked up to Bleach’s cell with the release order, he was surprised. ‘‘I have got the news on the radio,’’ Bleach told the super. ‘‘I will listen to music tonight,’’ he added.

His ‘‘rigours’’ amounted to fixing his meals on a cooking range. For the major part of the day, Bleach remained buried in law books or typed petitions to the court, the jail authorities and the British government.

‘‘As Bleach was a ‘high-security risk’ prisoner, we preferred to give him safe jobs. Like cooking his meals. In addition, I had requested him to look after the jail library for Rs 13 per day.”

The British Deputy High Commission has a complaint though. Legal hurdles prevented them from gifting Bleach a new suit before he left. ‘‘The y requested us to allow them to bring a tailor to the jail. We agreed,’’ says Bhattacharya but the High Commission didn’t have its way this time.