Murder charge invoked against Zubeen’s manager, fest organiser

The Assam Police invoked murder charge against Zubeen Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma and festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta in connection with the death of the singer in Singapore last month, a senior officer said on Thursday.

The two were arrested in Delhi on Wednesday and brought to Guwahati.

Munna Prasad Gupta, the Special DGP of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Assam Police, told reporters that interrogation of the two arrested persons is underway after a court here remanded them to a 14-day police custody.

“The investigation is going on, and I cannot share much detail. We have added Section 103 of the BNS in the FIR now,” he said. Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) deals with the punishment for murder.

The CID is currently probing the case of Garg’s death after more than 60 FIRs have been lodged across the state against Mahanta, and around 10 others, including the singer’s manager.

Mahanta was the chief organiser of the Northeast India Festival in Singapore, where the singer had gone to perform.

Singapore: Singer-musician Zubeen Garg died due to drowning while swimming off a Singapore island and not while scuba diving as reported earlier, media reports said Thursday.

Assam-based Garg, who was in Singapore for the 60th year of India Singapore Diplomatic Relations and to celebrate India ASEAN Year of Tourism, North-East India Festival, died on September 19.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said they have extended a copy of the autopsy report, along with its preliminary findings on Garg’s death, to the High Commission of India, upon its request, The Straits Times newspaper reported.

The Indian High Commission says it has received the report. According to a source, the report says that Garg died due to drowning. The SPF had earlier ruled out foul play in the death of the 52-year-old singer.

“In the case of Zubeen Garg, a coroner’s inquiry could possibly shed light on the sequence of events leading up to his drowning,” the Singapore broadsheet quoted Ng Kai Ling, associate director at LIMN Law Corporation here, as saying.

According to the Singapore daily, Ng also said that there is no statutory definition for the term “foul play”, but SPF’s initial statement could be understood to mean that they do not suspect that Garg was murdered or died as a result of some criminal violence.

Two more persons arrested

Musician Shakharjyoti Goswami and singer Amritprabha Mahanta were arrested on Thursday in connection with the death of singer Zubeen Garg, the police said. Goswami and Mahanta were arrested in the evening after days of interrogation and booked under various Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).