Guwahati, Sep 17 (IANS): Former Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Shankar Baruah Wednesday shot himself dead at his residence here, police said.
Baruah's name had cropped up in the multi crore-rupee Saradha chit fund scam last month, but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) confirmed through an official statement that he was not summoned as yet.
The CBI expressed its condolence over the death of Baruah and said it was a sad and unfortunate incident.
Baruah was admitted to a private hospital for the past three days due to some illness. After being discharged from the hospital around 11.20 a.m. Wednesday, he reached his home and shot himself.
His family members took him to a private nursing home where the doctors declared him dead, said a neighbour of the former DGP.
"He is dead. We have examined the place of incident. We are going for a post-mortem examination," said Senior Superintendent of Police (City) Anand Prakash Tiwary.A
Baruah, a 1974 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, retired as the state DGP in January 2012.
The CBI is likely to summon several persons from Assam, including politicians, former DGPs and some influential businessmen, for their alleged involvement in the scam.
The CBI recently arrested Assam's prominent singer and filmmaker Sadananda Gogoi in the case.
Besides the house of Shankar Baruah, the CBI sleuths had Aug 28 also raided 12 locations in Assam, including the houses and properties of two former ministers of Assam "Himanta Biswa Sarma and 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.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said that it was his government which had handed over 15 chit fund cases to the CBI, including that of Saradha, in 2013, much before the Supreme Court entrusted the investigating agency the task to probe the scam.