Singer Zubeen Garg’s cousin, Sandipon Garg, a DSP-rank Assam police service officer, was arrested on October 8, making him the fifth suspect to be brought in since a Special Investigation Team took over the investigation into the singer’s death by drowning in Singapore on September 19. Sandipon had been interrogated for a week on the alleged conspiracy behind the music icon’s death.
A Guwahati court remanded Sandipon to SIT custody for seven days. He is under investigation for alleged murder, criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and causing death by negligence.
Sandipon’s arrest coincided with the Enforcement Directorate quizzing Shyamkanu Mahanta, organiser of the North East India Festival in Singapore, where Zubeen was to perform on September 20. Mahanta was interrogated about alleged financial irregularities.
Meanwhile, the Assam police suspended two personal security officers assigned to Zubeen, and initiated departmental proceedings after the SIT discovered financial transactions exceeding Rs. 1 crore in their bank accounts.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma intends to meet the Singapore ambassador to India in Delhi this month to seek assistance from law enforcement in his country so that there would be no loose ends in the probe. The CM said, he was confident that the SIT, led by special DGP Munna Prasad Gupta, would file the chargesheet within the stipulated 90 days.
