Zubeen Garg case: Singapore police find no foul play so far; Assam SIT to visit on October 20

GUWAHATI: The Singapore Police on Friday said initial findings in the Zubeen Garg death case does not show foul play but underlined its commitment to a thorough and professional investigation, which is expected to take three months before findings are submitted to the state coroner.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while refusing to comment publicly on the Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) preliminary findings, said that a team of Assam SIT will travel to Singapore and hold talks on October 21, with their counterparts there to know more about the probe so far.


“Once the SIT team returns home, we will have a clearer picture of how the SPF is conducting its investigation and the direction it is taking,” Sarma said. The SIT team led by its chief, special DGP MP Gupta, will be travelling to Singapore on Monday.

Sarma’s line reassures the public that Assam is not passively relying on foreign findings but is actively engaging through its SIT whose meeting with SPF is positioned as a turning point in the investigation—where facts, evidence, and procedural clarity will be exchanged.

Zubeen, 52, an Indian music icon, died while swimming during a yacht outing near St John’s Island on September 19. The death certificate issued by Singapore General Hospital, where he died, was handed over to the High Commission of India on September 20 and has recorded the cause of death as “drowning.”

Upon completion of the SPF’s investigations, the state coroner in Singapore will then determine whether to hold a Coroner’s Inquiry (CI). A CI is a fact-finding process led by a coroner, who is a judicial officer of the courts, to establish the cause and circumstances of death, the SPF said. Its findings will be made public upon conclusion.

“The SPF is committed to conducting a thorough and professional investigation into the case, and this takes time. We seek the patience and understanding of the parties involved. Meanwhile, we urge the public not to speculate and spread unverified information,” the note said, adding that it is aware of the circulation of speculation and false information online regarding the circumstances surrounding Zubeen’s death.

The Coroners Act 2010 governs how unnatural deaths or suspected to have resulted, directly or indirectly, from an accident are handled in Singapore.

Amid widespread disbelief in Assam over the official account of Zubeen’s death by drowning, the state government constituted a nine-member SIT to probe what it has termed a “suspicious and tragic demise.”

The SIT has already made significant headway, arresting seven individuals under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including murder, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, criminal conspiracy and causing death by negligence.

Four of the arrested band members Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta, his manager Siddhartha Sharma and his cousin and a state police officer Sandipan Garg were with Zubeen in the yacht during his final moments. Goswami earlier alleged before SIT a conspiracy and Zubeen was poisoned to death.

The fifth arrested is Shyamkanu Mahanta, the organiser of the North East India Festival (NEIF) where Zubeen was scheduled to perform. Zubeen’s two PSOs Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya are the other arrested individuals.