NEW DELHI: The probe into the death of celebrated Assamese singer Zubeen Garg has intensified, with Assam Police adding a murder charge to the case against his long-time manager and the organiser of the Singapore festival where he died, officials said on Thursday.
Siddharth Sharma, Garg’s manager, and Shyamkanu Mahanta, chief organiser of the North East India Festival, were arrested on Wednesday. Mahanta was detained on arrival at Delhi airport from Singapore, while Sharma was picked up in Gurugram, Haryana. Both were brought to Guwahati under high security and later remanded to 14-day police custody.
“We have now added Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita to the FIR,” said Special DGP Munna Prasad Gupta of the Assam CID, according to PTI. The section deals with murder, prescribing either death penalty or life imprisonment along with a fine. Apart from this, the duo also face charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, conspiracy, and causing death by negligence.
Zubeen Garg, one of Assam’s most iconic cultural figures, passed away on September 19 in Singapore, a day before the start of the North East India Festival. He had travelled to participate in the event being organised to mark 60 years of India-Singapore diplomatic ties and the ASEAN Year of Tourism. Garg was found unconscious in the waters off St. John’s Island and was declared dead at a hospital the same day.
Speaking to reporters, his wife Garima Saikia Garg said she was “satisfied” that both Sharma and Mahanta had been brought to Assam. “We are all waiting to know what happened to him in his last moments,” she said, adding that she has “full faith” in the investigators to uncover the truth.
The BJP-led state government has constituted a 10-member team to investigate the case. The Congress, meanwhile, has also demanded a probe and suggested that it be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.