Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday asserted that the BJP government in the state has been doing a stupendous work to provide justice to Zubeen Garg who untimely passed away while swimming in the sea in Singapore in the previous month.
Sarma told reporters here, “It was thought initially that those responsible for the sudden departure of our beloved Zubeen Garg would get away with bail. But now, people can see that we have arrested five persons including the cousin of the singer, Sandipan Garg. The BJP-led government has acted promptly and we have put those people behind bars. We will leave no stone unturned for giving justice to Zubeen Garg.”
The Chief Minister also took a potshot at the opposition and said, “When Congress was in power in Assam, they took at least three days of time to decide the cremation site of Bhupen Hazarika. Such was the efficiency level of the government then whereas now we have arrested all five accused in the Zubeen Garg untimely death.”
Notably, the Assam Police officer and cousin of Zubeen Garg was sent to seven days of police custody following his arrest. Sandipan Garg, the cousin of late iconic singer is a Deputy Superintendent in Assam Police Service. He was also in the yacht party in Singapore on September 19 where the music maestro tragically passed away while swimming in the sea.
Zubeen Garg travelled to Singapore to attend northeast India music festival and Sandipan Garg also went with him to enjoy the programme.
Earlier, the arrested Assam Police officer was grilled by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the death of Zubeen Garg for the last one week. Sandipan Garg was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in the Kamrup district who sent him to seven days’ police custody.
The SIT, led by CID Special DGP M. P. Gupta told reporters here, “We demanded 14 days police custody of Sandipan Garg; however, the court granted seven days of custody. As the probe is ongoing, I can not reveal more details of Garg’s arrest.”
Gupta also mentioned that the Singapore-based Assamese person Rup Kamal Kalita appeared before the SIT for the second consecutive day on Wednesday while the CID has been preparing to send fresh summons to other NRI persons who were present at the yacht on September 19.
On October 1, the team apprehended Zubeen’s manager Siddharth Sharma and event organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta who had coordinated the music festival in Singapore where the singer was supposed to perform. Both were booked under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Subsequently, two bandmates of Zubeen – musician Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and singer Amritprabha Mahanta – were taken into custody and remanded to 14-day police custody for further questioning.
