Zubeen Garg death: Festival organiser, manager arrested, brought to Assam
North East India Festival, Shyamkanu Mahanata was arrested at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport while Zubeen Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma was nabbed from Gurugram
GUWAHATI: The special investigation team (SIT) of the Assam Police criminal investigation department (CID) on Wednesday arrested the chief organiser of North East India Festival, Shyamkanu Mahanata, and Siddharth Sharma, the manager of singer Zubeen Garg, in connection with the latter’s death in Singapore earlier this month, police said.
Officials confirmed that Mahanta was arrested at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Wednesday shortly after he landed from Singapore on an Air India flight at 12:19 am.
Garg had gone to attend the festival in Singapore before dying in a swimming incident on September 19.
Meanwhile, Sharma, who was hiding in Rajasthan, was nabbed from an apartment in Gurugram. Both were brought from Delhi to Guwahati by an Air India Express flight that landed at 6.43 am at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) airport.
“Both the accused have been arrested, brought to Guwahati and produced before the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) (Kamrup-Metropolitan) (Baloram Kshetri), who granted 14 days police remand. We will interrogate them at length. The investigation into the case is progressing at a speedy pace,” special DGP (CID) Assam Police, MP Gupta, who is heading the 10-member SIT, said.
Following Garg’s death while swimming in sea, over 60 first information reports (FIRs), including one by Garg’s family, had been filed in Assam against both Mahanta and Sharma alleging negligence. All these FIRs were clubbed and the case handed over to CID, which lodged one case under several sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and death by negligence.
The CID has been interrogating several members of Garg’s band and those who were present in Singapore when the incident took place and also lodged a separate case against Mahanta for financial irregularities. Last week lookout notices were issued against both Mahanta and Sharma.
“Investigation is a legal process and if it’s not scientifically done, it won’t lead to justice. I urge all to avoid speculations. Have belief and faith in us and let us do our work,” Assam Police DGP Harmeet Singh said on Wednesday.
After Garg’s death, authorities in Singapore had conducted a post-mortem and a probe. While the death certificate had mentioned drowning as the cause of death, details of the post-mortem haven’t been released yet.
Following public demand in Assam, another post-mortem on Garg’s body was conducted in Guwahati on September 23. That report is also not available yet.
The 52-year-old singer, composer, poet, actor and filmmaker had suffered several incidents of epileptic seizures in the past five years for which he had to be hospitalised. Due to his condition, doctors had advised him to be careful of water and fire.
It is alleged by many in the FIRs that Mahanta pressured Garg to attend the event in Singapore despite being aware of his condition and didn’t ensure proper care and supervision while he was there.
Garg’s manager was present at the scene when he (Garg) apparently had another bout of seizure while swimming in sea without a life jacket during a yacht trip organised by some Assamese NRIs based in Singapore.
