The organiser of the North East India Festival, and three others have been charged with murder in connection with the death of Assam singer Zubeen Garg. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case filed a 3,500-page chargesheet in a Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court in Guwahati, charging four people with murder.
Who all have been named in chargesheet?
Those charged with murder are chief festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, Siddhartha Sharma, Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta.
Apart from them, Zubeen Garg’ cousin and suspended Assam Police officer Sandipan Garg has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The SIT was formed by the Assam government to probe the mysterious circumstances in which Garg was found dead in Singapore.
He allegedly died while swimming in a sea in Singapore on September 19 this year.
What SIT said
Assam CM Himanta Sarma had said the death seems to be a murder case and the state government would do anything possible to get justice for the “son of the country”. The SIR, led by Special DGP M P Gupta, was tasked to investigate the singer’s death.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had claimed in the recently concluded assembly session that Garg’s death was ‘plain and simple murder’. Earlier,the Singapore Police Force (SPF), carrying out an independent investigation into Garg’s death, had said in a statement that preliminary probe has not indicated any foul play, and that the investigations may take up to another three months.
Gupta had earlier said that the SIT examined 300 witnesses in the case.