Two personal security officers of Zubeen Garg held over unusual financial transactions
Nandeswar Bora, Paresh Baishya were suspended by the Assam Police after investigators detected “unexplained financial transactions” over ₹1 crore in their personal bank accounts
Silchar: The special investigation team (SIT) of Assam Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested two personal security officers (PSOs) of Zubeen Garg, who died in Singapore last month in a swimming incident, over alleged unusual financial transactions, police said on Friday.
The two PSOs — Nandeswar Bora and Paresh Baishya — who were taken into custody late on Thursday night were produced before a district court on Friday morning, which remanded them to five days in police custody for further interrogation, a police officer aware of the development said.
Bora and Baishya were suspended by the Assam Police after investigators detected “unexplained financial transactions” over ₹1 crore in their personal bank accounts. According to officers, Bora’s account showed transactions of around ₹70 lakh, while Baishya’s had over ₹40 lakh in transactions beyond their known income sources over the last four to five years.
Officers said that investigators are checking if the unusual money transactions in the PSOs’ accounts had any link to the circumstances surrounding Zubeen’s death.
However, family members of the two officers said that Zubeen had used their bank accounts to store and distribute funds kept aside for charitable purposes.
Zubeen’s wife, Garima Saikia Garg, also said that her husband had indeed entrusted some money to his PSOs, but insisted that it was done purely for philanthropic reasons. “Zubeen had given some money to the PSOs for social work,” she said earlier this week.
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With their arrests, the total number of people taken into custody in connection with Zubeen’s death has risen to seven.
The CID of Assam Police, which is heading the SIT, had earlier arrested Zubeen’s Singapore festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and his secretary Siddharth Sharma on October 1.
A day later, two musicians, Amritprabha Mahanta and Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, were also arrested. All four were sent to 14-day police remand, and several other individuals have since been summoned for questioning. Zubeen’s cousin, Sandipan Garg, was arrested earlier this week.
