Court defers charge consideration in Zubeen case to Jan 17

Guwahati: Kamrup (M) district sessions court on Saturday deferred hearings on consideration of charges in the Zubeen Garg case until Jan 17 after the prosecution sought more time, citing the voluminous chargesheet and documents, together running over 12,000 pages.The case was listed on Saturday and all the seven accused — Singapore festival organizer Shyamkanu Mahanta, manager Siddharth Sharma, band member Sekhar Jyoti Goswami, co-singer Amritprava Mahanta, cousin brother and a police officer Sandipon Garg and PSOs Paresh Baishya and Nandeswar Borah — were produced from jail custody through video conferencing.Consideration of charges is the court’s initial review of evidence to see if a prima facie case exists for framing the charges against the accused.Shyamkanu, Siddharth, Sekharjyoti and Amritprava face charges of murder, conspiracy and common intention, while Sandipon has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.Siddharth, Sekharjyoti, Nandeswar and Paresh are also accused of criminal breach of trust in property, while Shyamkanu and Amritprava have also been charged with disappearance of evidence and giving false information.Four of the accused — Amritprava, Sandipon, Nandeshwar and Paresh — filed bail applications on Saturday, in response to which the prosecution sought time to submit written objections, which the court allowed.Shyamkanu’s counsels have not yet filed bail application but pressed for de-freezing of his bank accounts, supply of non-relied documents, and permission for virtual appearances. The public prosecutor told the court the objections will be filed on the next date, which the court allowed.On the other hand, Siddharth’s three private counsels applied for representing him in place of the legal aid defence counsels.The session judge Gautam Baruah discharged the chief legal aid defence counsel and deputy chief legal aid counsels from defending Amritprava, Shyamkanu, Siddharth and Sekharjyoti, as each of them have engaged private defence counsels.Sekharjyoti’s counsel pleaded for time for hearing on consideration of charge, which the court allowed till the next date on Jan 17.Only Sandipon and PSOs Paresh and Nandeswar have not engaged any private lawyers and continue to be represented by the chief legal aid defence counsel.The judge also allowed Zubeen’s wife Garima Saikia Garg’s plea to engage counsel Pradipta Talukdar to assist the public prosecutor.Garima, who was also present in the court, later urged state govt to expedite the appointment of a team of public prosecutors comprising senior lawyers with expertise on the matter.“The accused have built a strong legal team, as we can see. We also have to form our own strong team. The chief minister has said a special prosecution team will be formed, and I request him to do so at the earliest,” she said.Garima also requested for the fast-tracking of the trial process as there are nearly 400 witnesses in the case, and it “would take decades for progress to be made in routine hearings.”