I will burn to death today: Balwant Singh Barari

Former colonel accused in marijuana case threatens to immolate self and family near South Block

I will burn to death today: Balwant Singh Barari

Former colonel accused in marijuana case threatens to immolate self and family near South Block

For ten years ex-Colonelu00a0 Balwant Singh Barari has been fighting for his honour. But he has finally run out of patience.

The former Army officer, who was court-martialled for having alleged links with the Assam drug mafia, exposed after a truck laden vehicle with marijuana was caught, plans to immolate himself and his family today. Though, the Army had instituted an inquiry into the matter, he didn't get a satisfactory response.

In the letter, dated March 26, Barari said, "As the government has not given us any mercy or relief we no longer want to prolong this wretched, pitiable lifestyle and have decided to put an end to all our sorrows and sufferings by immolating ourselves as a family at 1200 hrs on March 30, 2009... He has also asked that he along with his family members should be allowed to march to South Block, North Block and Rashtrapati Bhawan before burning themselves to death.

Marijuana Case -u00a0MiDDAY story

The letter further stated that if the police would try tou00a0 stop them, they would set themselves on fire some other time. "We will accomplish the last mission of our lives by immolating ourselves in front of South Block at a suitable time and date," the letter said.

MiD DAY, on March 12, was the first to publish the story about the ex-colonel's fight for justice.

Barari was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment that was later curtailed for reasons unknown to him. "I was commanding 21st battalion of the Assam Rifles in 1999 when the incident took place. The truck was caught in an area which was out of my jurisdiction but senior army officers and drug mafia connived to nail me down after a series of successful operations against the mafia by my unit in that area," Barari told MiD DAY.

He managed to arrest 400 militants with more than 100 weapons and seized more than 800 kilograms of marijuana in his less than two-year-long tenure with Assam rifles in Manipur.

The demand for an inquiry into his case over the last nine years had led Barari to meet respective defence ministers and Army chiefs and Prime Ministers.

"The truck was caught in an area which was out of my jurisdiction but senior Army officers and drug mafia connived to nail me down after a series of successful operations against the mafia by my unit in that area," Barari said.

His elder son Rohit Barari, 28, said, "I have requested many senior army and government officials but no one has responded yet. We have unofficially come to know that the defence minister wants to meet my father though nothing has been communicated to us officially."

Meanwhile, to avoid any untoward incident, the police have deployed extra forces at Jantar Mantar.

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