Won’t make Zubeen Garg’s postmortem report public, says Assam CM

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma anyone interested in seeing Zubeen Garg’s postmortem report can visit the CID office with prior approval to read it

Silchar: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said that the postmortem report of singer Zubeen Garg will not be made public as it might hamper court proceedings, but anyone interested in seeing the report can visit the Crime Investigation Department (CID) office with prior approval to read it.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. (PTI)

Zubeen Garg died in Singapore on September 19, and two separate postmortems were conducted — one in Singapore and another at Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

Both reports were handed over to Zubeen’s wife, Garima Garg, but she chose to return them to the CID to aid the investigation.

The Assam government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the supervision of the CID, while the Gauhati high court has also formed a Judicial Commission to monitor the probe.

The state government has sent Zubeen Garg’s viscera samples to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in New Delhi to determine whether the singer was poisoned.

Sarma said that the government expects to receive the viscera test report from CFSL on October 10, which will clarify if poison was involved in the singer’s death.

Sarma met Zubeen’s family members at their Guwahati residence on Saturday evening, and said that he had gone there not as the chief minister but as a family member.

“Zubeen was like my younger brother, and his wife Garima was my junior in Cotton College. I met them, touched the feet of his father, and had an hour-long discussion. We are all heartbroken by this death, and the meeting was purely personal,” he said.

Sarma also mentioned that the CID has recorded statements of other accused in the case. He added that members of the Assamese community in Singapore, who were present when Zubeen died, need to be brought to Assam for questioning.

“We cannot compel them through our police or legal system because they live in another country, but their family members stay in Assam and they can help us. I appeal to the people of Assam to create pressure on their family members,” he said.

A fresh complaint has been lodged at Guwahati’s Latasil police station by a doctor, alleging the involvement of 11 members of the Assam Association of Singapore in Garg’s death.

The SIT, which is probing the case, has already issued summons to eight of them — Tanmoy Phukan, Abhimanyu Talukdar, Debojyoti Hazarika, Rupkamal Kalita, Bhaskar Dutta, Siddhartha Bora, Parikshit Sharma, and Wajed Ahmed — asking them to appear before it by October 6.

Sarma warned that if the accused do not appear before the Assam Police by the deadline, “all possible measures” will be taken to bring them to Assam.

He also issued a similar warning earlier to Shyam Kanu Mahanta and Siddharth Sharma, asking them to appear before the police in Guwahati, though they were arrested days before the summons could take effect.