Five individuals accused in connection with the death of popular Assamese singer Zubeen Garg in Singapore last month have been remanded to judicial custody after the expiry of their police remand, a Guwahati court ruled on Wednesday.
Those sent to judicial custody include North East India Festival (NEIF) chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, Zubeen’s manager Siddhartha Sharma, his cousin and Assam Police officer Sandipan Garg, and his two personal security officers (PSOs), Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya. The Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate passed the order and, expressing concern over the accused’s safety, directed that they be lodged in a jail with fewer inmates.
Authorities have accordingly decided to shift all five to the recently inaugurated Baksa Jail at Mussalpur, which currently has no prisoners, an official said.
Mahanta and Sharma were the first to be arrested on 1 October from Delhi in connection with Garg’s death in Singapore. Initially charged under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, criminal conspiracy and causing death by negligence, the police later added murder charges to the case. The duo had been in police custody for 14 days before being sent to jail.
Also read: CID grills three Assamese NRIs in Zubeen Garg death case
Zubeen’s cousin, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sandipan Garg, was arrested on 8 October and remanded to seven days of police custody. Serving as the in-charge of the co-district superintendent of police of Boko-Chaygaon in Kamrup, he was suspended from service on the day of his arrest. Investigators said Sandipan had accompanied the singer to Singapore and was present on the yacht during the final hours before Garg’s death.
The singer’s personal security officers, Bora and Baishya, were arrested on 10 October and remanded to five days of police custody. Two others — Zubeen’s band member Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and singer Amritprava Mahanta, had been taken into custody earlier, on 3 October, and placed in 14-day police remand.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Assam has also opened a separate probe against Mahanta for alleged organised financial offences and “acquiring huge amounts of ‘benami’ properties by money laundering,” an official familiar with the case said.
Following Garg’s death by drowning in Singapore on 19 September, the Assam government constituted a 10-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct a detailed probe into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Over 60 FIRs have been filed across Assam against Mahanta, Sharma and several others, triggering the Chief Minister’s directive to the Director General of Police to transfer all complaints to the CID and register a consolidated case to ensure a comprehensive investigation.
As the probe widens, the case surrounding Zubeen Garg’s untimely demise, which has shocked millions of fans across the Northeast, continues to unravel new layers of alleged conspiracy, negligence, and financial misconduct.
Follow us
