A former Southend Tory languishing in an Indian jail for arms dealing is suffering from discrimination, according to the Foreign Office.

Peter Bleach, who served as Conservative chairman of St Luke's ward, was jailed for "waging war against India" by smuggling weapons into the country.

He was arrested with four Russians and a Latvian who have now been freed.

A Foreign Office spokesman today (Thursday) said high-level talks on Bleach, 48, who is considering a hunger strike, were ongoing with the Indian government.

The said: "He has been found guilty in an Indian court and it is for an Indian court to decide his guilt or innocence. But we will not stand by and watch British nationals be discriminated against, which we feel he has been as his fellow conspirators have been released.

"Over the past few weeks the British High Commissioner has raised the issue of Peter Bleach with the Indian Foreign Secretary, the Indian Attorney General, the Indian Home Secretary and the Indian Prime Minister's principal secretary."

"We are taking it up at every level and at the most senior level possible."

Rochford and Southend MP Sir Teddy Taylor who worked with Bleach on the 1987 General Election campaign, has pledged to push as hard as possible to see him freed as he backs Bleach's claim that MI5 and the British authorities were aware of the weapons dropping operation.

Locked up - Peter Bleach

By Alistair Walton

Reporter's e-mail: alistair.walton@notes.newsquest.co.uk

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