India will release Peter Bleach

The release of Peter Bleach, from Yorkshire, would require clemency from the president, and the government is still working out the procedure in consultation with the law ministry, a newspaper said.

Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani conveyed the Centre's decision to release Bleach to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during their meeting in London on Monday, the newspaper said.

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Attempts to confirm the report in New Delhi were not immediately successful. Advani remained in London.

Bleach and five Russian men were arrested in 1995 and later convicted on charges that they parachuted crates of assault rifles, anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition over the eastern Indian village of Purulia.

Police said the cache was meant for a revolutionary group. Former president K Narayanan pardoned the Russian accomplices in 2000 after Moscow pleaded that there was little evidence against them and that the sentences were too harsh. The British government's request for the release of Bleach on similar grounds remained pending.

India's figurehead president can pardon a convict or reduce a sentence.