Zubeen death case: Two more Assamese expats from Singapore appear before CID

Two more Assamese expats, who were present during the dying moments of cultural icon Zubeen Garg in Singapore last month, appeared before the Assam Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday, which is probing the death of the singer, a top officer said.

So far, seven Assamese NRIs living in the Southeast Asian nation have deposed before the investigating agency here, with four more who have been issued summonses by the CID yet to appear.

"Today, Abhimanyu Talukdar and Tanmoy Phukan have come from Singapore and are appearing before the CID. Their interrogation is on and statements are being recorded," CID Special DGP Munna Prasad Gupta told reporters in a brief statement.

Both are top office-bearers of the Assam Association Singapore and were present on the yacht when Garg died while swimming in the sea there on September 19. Garg was in Singapore to attend the 4th North East India Festival.

Gupta had said on Monday that four expats — Jiolangsat Narzary, Parikshit Sharma, Siddhartha Bora and Bhaskar Jyoti Dutta — deposed before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of CID.

Earlier, only one Assamese person from Singapore, Rupkamal Kalita, appeared before the CID and was interrogated for more than 24 hours before he was allowed to leave.

The CID had issued summonses to all 11 expats present at the yacht at the time of the incident, with only Kalita responding to the first notice.

Summonses were reissued to the remaining 10 for a second time last week.

Earlier, North East India Festival chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, the singer's manager Siddharth Sharma, and his two band members Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amrit Prabha Mahanta, and Garg's cousin and Assam Police DSP Sandipan Garg, who were all present in Singapore last month, had been arrested by CID.

Zubeen Garg's PSOs Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya were also arrested after police found huge financial transactions, worth over Rs 1.1 crore, from their accounts.

All the seven arrested people are now in police custody. They were booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for murder, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, criminal conspiracy and causing death by negligence.