JOHN Prescott and Jack Straw have been keeping up the pressure on the Indian Government to release jailed North Yorkshire arms dealer Peter Bleach.

Both the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have raised Bleach's case with the Indian Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra.

The developments were revealed to Peter's mother Oceana, from near Scarborough, in a letter from Lisa Jennians, of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Consular Division.

Bleach, a former pupil of St Peter's School in York, who used to live near Whitby, has been languishing in a Calcutta jail for more than six years since being imprisoned for his part in an arms drop in West Bengal.

Five Russian accomplices given the same sentences for their part in the affair were released last year, following Russian president Vladimir Putin's intervention on their behalf.

The British Government has been pressing since last year for Bleach to be freed, on the basis that it would be discriminatory for him to be treated differently to the Russians.

Ms Jennians said Jack Straw had taken the opportunity to raise Bleach's case with Mr Mishra, and the Indian had undertaken to look into the issue on his return to India.

She added that the Deputy Prime Minister had also raised Peter's case with Mishra during a recent visit to India.

"We will continue to do all we properly can to help Peter and to press for his release," she added.

She said Bleach had told the British Vice Consul he believed an Indian investigative agency, the CBI, was determined to keep him imprisoned while they pursued the mastermind of the arms drop.

Meanwhile, the York parents of 50-year-old deaf man Ian Stillman, jailed in India for alleged possession of drugs, must wait another anxious week before discovering whether he is to be set free.

Monica and Roy Stillman, of Dringhouses, said a court hearing due on Monday, at which they had hoped he would be granted bail, was delayed for a week because of paperwork irregularities.

Monica said her son-in-law Jeremy Dugdale had been about to fly out to India at the weekend to attend the hearing but heard of the delay just in time to postpone his trip.

Updated: 10:02 Tuesday, July 10, 2001