Zubeen Garg's death: Assam to set up judicial panel, says CM; Himanta Biswa Sarma makes public appeal

NEW DELHI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday announced that a judicial commission will be formed to probe into the death of singer Zubeen Garg, who passed away on September 19.

During a Facebook live, the chief minister added that the commission will be headed by Justice Soumitra Saikia of the Gauhati High Court.

CM requests public to share info related to Garg's death

"We will form the commission tomorrow. Now, we request all the people who have any information or videos related to Zubeen Garg's death to come forward and depose in front of the commission," he said.

The 52-year-old Assamese singer drowned while swimming near an island during a yacht outing in Singapore, a day before he was scheduled to perform at a festival.

Festival organiser moves SC

Earlier today, Shyamkanu Mahanta, chief organiser of the Northeast India Festival, filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the probe from the state police's SIT to a central agency such as the CBI or the NIA.

Garg's manager, Siddharth Sharma and Mahanta are in CID custody for 14 days after being nabbed from Delhi on Wednesday. Police had invoked murder charges against both.

The petition states that Singaporean authorities found no element of foul play or culpability attributable to Mahanta in their inquiry.

He has made the Centre, Assam government, the state's director general of police, the Central Bureau of India and the National Investigation Agency as respondents.

Plea says Mahanta subjected to a 'vicious media trial'

The plea says that Mahanta has been subjected to a "vicious media trial" and "scapegoating" in connection with Garg’s sudden death and state police registered a case under BNS for criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and causing death by negligence.

According to the plea, over 54 FIRs have been filed against Mahanta across Assam and other northeastern states. It said that Mahanta was busy organising the festival and was not present at the location where Garg died.

It further said that he last met Garg on September 17.


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