NEW DELHI: Popular singer Zubeen Garg will be cremated with full state honours on September 23 at a village near Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.
The decision to cremate Garg at Kamarkuchi NC village was taken during a cabinet meeting, considering the family's wish that his last rites be performed at a place in or around Guwahati, Sarma said at a press conference.
There were also demands from the people of the Upper Assam town of Jorhat, where the singer had spent his formative years, that he be cremated there, he said.
''We discussed both the proposals. Zubeen does not belong to the government, and so his family's choice should be given priority,'' Sarma said.
His wife Garima Saikia Garg and sister Pamle Borthakur pointed out that it would not be possible for his 85-year-old ailing father to go Jorhat for the last rites and even later during anniversaries or other rituals, it would be difficult for the family to go there, the CM said.
''Three of my cabinet colleagues - Ranoj Pegu, Keshav Mahanta and Bimal Borah - and also a delegation of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) had discussed the matter with his wife and she had conveyed the family's decision to hold the last rites in Guwahati'', Sarma said.
Besides, Garg had lived in Guwahati for the most part of his life, he added.
''We, however, respect the sentiments of the people of Jorhat, with the Cabinet deciding that his ashes will be immersed there and a memorial will be built there,'' Sarma said.
Regarding the request of the people of Jorhat to at least take Garg’s mortal remains there for one last time, the CM said that his body was not in a condition to be taken there and again brought back to Guwahati for cremation.
A memorial will also be built at the place where he will be cremated near Guwahati, he added.
The cremation site encompasses 3.3 acres of government land where some local people had set up a plant nursery, and they eagerly gave it for Garg’s funeral, he said.
The CM said that he had visited the site while returning from Delhi on Sunday and will go there again on Sunday night to review arrangements for the cremation.
He said that the place can accommodate around 5,000 people and appealed to Garg's fans to pay their last respects to him at the Arjun Bhogeswar Baruah Sports Complex, where his body will be kept till the morning of September 23.
The state government had declared a three-day mourning till September 22, but it has been extended by another day for his cremation, the CM said.
On the day of the cremation, the highway adjacent to the site of the last rites will remain closed for heavy vehicles.
Sarma also said the Singapore government has issued the singer's death certificate, which states that he died due to drowning.
''The Indian High Commission in Singapore has sent us the death certificate, and we have also requested that the postmortem report be also sent to us at the earliest,'' Sarma added.
Garg died in Singapore while swimming in the sea on Friday.
Regarding the investigations into the case registered by the CID following Zubeen's death, the CM said that statements of those who filed multiple FIRs against the two accused are being recorded.
Both the accused - North East India Festival (NEIF) Chief Organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and the singer's manager Siddhartha Sharma - are now not here, and ''my top priority now is to ensure Zubeen's last rites are conducted smoothly,'' he said.
Besides, the place of occurrence is Singapore, so the police of that country will investigate the case, and ''we can only look into whether he was taken there as a part of a conspiracy'', Sarma said.
''We shall proceed step by step, but let me first fulfil my duty and responsibility of giving Zubeen the farewell he deserves with dignity and respect,'' the CM said.
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