Second post-mortem of Zubeen Garg's body to be done on Tuesday

A second postmortem of singer Zubeen Garg's body will be conducted on Tuesday morning at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) following demands from certain sections of Assam people, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday.

The first autopsy was conducted in Singapore where Garg died by drowning on September 19. His last rites will be performed on the outskirts of Guwahati on Tuesday with full state honours.

Sarma said that after the post-mortem examination at GMCH, his journey to the cremation ground will begin at 9.30 am, two hours after the earlier-announced time.

“It (second postmortem) is not a demand from the public but from certain fringe elements and we have decided to conduct it with his wife's consent,” the chief minister said at a press conference here.

“We do not want to create any controversy over Zubeen, so this decision was taken,” he said.

The CM said that he personally was not interested in “cutting up his body” as he is a “die-hard Zubeen fan but when a section, even if they are in a minority, demands it, my personal wish does not matter. This is democracy”.

After the Singapore doctors had conducted the postmortem, “I don't think it was necessary for another postmortem as they have more technical expertise but there should not be any scope for any section to indulge in any kind of politics over Zubeen”, Sarma said.

The postmortem will be conducted by a team of doctors from GMCH and AIIMS, Guwahati.

“It will take around two hours in the morning and so his final journey will begin at 9.30 am instead of the earlier scheduled time of 7.30 am,” the CM said.

Garg (52) died while swimming in the sea on September 19 in Singapore where he had gone to attend the North East India Festival.

The people of Assam had also initially said that there was no need for a postmortem in Singapore as they “did not want their favourite singer's body to be touched with knives and scissors after his death”, he said.

“Then again there was a demand that the Assam government should not conduct it as they did not have faith in us, and it should be done in Singapore. Now, a certain section with political motive has demanded another postmortem,” Sarma claimed.

Accordingly, “I asked Union minister Pabitra Margherita to discuss the matter with his wife Garima Saikia Garg, and she said she had no objection to the second postmortem”, he said.

Regarding the investigations into the case registered by the CID following Garg's death, the CM said there are several FIRs, including one in Bongaigaon naming two more persons - the owner of a private media house and a musician from the singer's team.