Guwahati: In a shocking piece of news, former Assam director general of police (DGP) Shankar Baruah, whose residence was searched by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last month in connection with the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam, shot himself dead here on Wednesday.
CBI officials had taken the former DGP to a State Bank of India branch near his house and examined his bank accounts.
More details are awaited.
The CBI had on August 28 raided 22 locations in West Bengal and Assam, including the residence of Baruah.
The searches by the CBI took place at 14 in Assam (12 in Guwahati and two in Dhubri), seven locations in Kolkata and one in Mumbai, including the residences of Assam’s former education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Baruah.
The other residences raided in Assam included that of Congress legislator and former minister Anjan Dutta and singer Sadananda Gogoi.
A host of high profile names, including Bengal minister Shyamapada Mukherjee, actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen, Trinamool parliamentarian Ahmed Hassan Imran and former IPS officer Rajat Majumdar have been grilled by the CBI or the Enforcement Directorate.
The CBI has till now registered 48 cases, including four in West Bengal and 44 in Odisha, in the alleged chit fund scam on the directions of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had handed over the 10,000 crore Saradha chit fund scam case to the CBI in May 2014 and asked the state governments to provide all logistical help to the agency.
