The Special Investigation Team of the Assam Police on Thursday conducted searches at the homes of late singer Zubeen Garg’s manager Siddhartha Sharma and Shyamkanu Mahanta, the organiser of the Northeast India Festival, the Hindustan Times reported.
Garg, a popular Assamese singer, died on September 19 in Singapore. He died during a yacht trip, a day before he was to perform at the festival organised by Mahanta.
A death certificate issued by the Singaporean authorities on September 20 stated the cause of Garg’s death as drowning. He was cremated near Guwahati with state honours and a 21-gun salute on Tuesday.
After Garg’s death, more than 50 first information reports were filed against Sharma and Mahanta.
The state police had formed the SIT led by Special Director General of Police MP Gupta to investigate Garg’s death.
On Thursday, protesters threw stones at police vehicles outside Sharma’s house, after which the security personnel conducted a lathi-charge, The Indian Express reported.
The SIT detained musician Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, who was present during the yacht trip, for questioning. The allegations against Goswami, if any, were unclear, India Today reported.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the police’s Criminal Investigation Department will interrogate Mahanta and others who were with Garg in Singapore.
“If the Assam CID is unable to unearth all the facts, we will approach the [Central Bureau of Investigation],” Sarma said.
“By every possible means, we will uncover the truth of what happened that day,” Sarma told reporters. “On this matter, there will be no compromise.”
The chief minister urged the public not to spread rumours about Garg’s death. “If anyone has any leads or material, kindly contact the CID,” he said.
On Wednesday, Sarma said that Mahanta and any organisation associated with him will be prohibited from holding events in the state.
Earlier, Mahanta and his team stated on social media that they had “no prior knowledge” of Garg taking the yacht trip.
“Zubeen had told the festival organising team that he wanted to go to Singapore and we arranged for his stay at a hotel,” Mahanta told PTI. “He had not come for the festival alone but had also made his own plans with members of the Assam Association in Singapore.”
Born in 1972 in Meghalaya, Garg primarily worked in the Assamese, Bengali and Hindi-language film and music industries. The Assamese singer had sung in more than 40 languages and dialects.
In 2006, he sang Ya Ali from the Hindi film Gangster, which made him a nationwide success. Among other prominent Hindi songs by him are Subah Subah and Kya Raaz Hai.
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