CONVICTED gun-runner Peter Bleach has gone on a hunger strike in protest against delays in freeing him from his Calcutta jail.

The latest twist in his long-running saga comes just days after the 52-year-old, from North Yorkshire, was pardoned by the Indian government.

A senior British consular official said Bleach had decided to fast "to protest the delay in his release despite the remission order by the Indian president".

Following the announcement last Friday, Bleach had expected to be released yesterday but legal problems, a nationwide strike and a public holiday in India caused delays.

He has also been asked to pay a fine of 5,000 rupees - about £60.

Bleach, of Fylingthorpe, near Whitby, has been serving a life sentence after he and five men from the former Soviet Union were convicted in 2000 of waging war against India.

They had dropped crates containing assault rifles and anti-tank missiles to militants in West Bengal, in 1995.

The other men were freed in 2000 after appeals by Moscow, but Bleach remained behind bars.

However, following talks with Home Secretary David Blunkett last Friday, India's deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani announced he would be released.

But a customs violation case is still pending against Bleach and would have to be dropped before he is freed.

Bleach's lawyer, Deepak Prolatka, said he had been asked to pay the fine but was waiting for an assurance that payment would not be taken as an admission of guilt and he could appeal after his release.

Bleach's release document says that all cases against him, and those filed by him against the Indian authorities, must be cleared up before he is allowed to leave the country.

The aircraft used by Bleach and the Latvians was forced to land in Bombay and the customs case is still outstanding in that area.