With the investigation of the mysterious sudden death of renowned Assamese singer Zubeen Garg still ongoing, two main associates of the singer, his manager Siddharth Sarma and the organizer of the North East India Festival, Shyamkanu Mahanta have been arrested by the Assam police Special Investigation Team (SIT). The arrests were based on the charges of suspicion about the situation of the death of Garg in Singapore after being drowned during scuba diving without a life jacket on September 19.
Special Investigation Team Arrests Zubeen Garg’s Manager And North East India Festival Organiser
At Delhi airport, Mahanta was arrested at around 12:30 AM and flew with him under custody to Guwahati, but Sarma was arrested at Rajasthan after travelling from Gurugram. They are both to be presented before Assam CID, SIT in Guwahati to be interrogated and questioned further. The Assam government had previously set up a 10 member SIT, headed by Special DGP MP Gupta, to investigate all the angles in the death of the singer including negligence or safety lapses. Before the arrests, the SIT had given notices to Mahanta, Sarma and several other persons including members of the Singapore Assam Association, to appear and make statements. The state government had actually also placed a lookout notice with Interpol requiring them to appear before the CID by October 6. The urgency is an indication of the extreme public and political delicacy that comes with the death of Garg.
Zubeen Garg’s Death
Zubeen Garg was a 52 year old who was a favourite icon in the Northeast and elsewhere. His corpse was returned to Singapore to India and cremated on September 23 in the village of Kamarkuchi of Guwahati with full state honours. The funeral was very emotional, hundreds of locals were present, families were crying their eyes out, and a gun salute was given to the deceased singer. Central to this investigation is the issue of whether due diligence or safety measures were not followed by the organisers or diving set up. The detention of the two, Mahanta and Sarma, is a pointer that there is an earnestness in how Assam is handling the case. The investigation will seek to assemble the evidence as it unfolds and take testimony in order to forge a complete picture of what exactly occurred and whether or not any criminal liability is to be assigned.
