In unprecedented Assam assembly session, Himanta explains why he insists Zubeen Garg was ‘murdered’

Multiple Opposition MLAs speaking during the adjournment motion demanded that a detailed statement be issued in the assembly to elaborate and support the claim made repeatedly by Chief Minister Sarma that Zubeen’s sudden death in Singapore on September 19 was a “murder”.

The Singapore Police had earlier stated that their preliminary investigation did not suggest “foul play.”

Responding to questions on this, Sarma stated that he refers to it as a murder because the FIR registered in connection with the case by the Assam CID includes Section 103 of the BNS, which pertains to murder.

“We registered an FIR on September 20 itself, the day after his death. That means that on the first day itself, we suspected that his death was not a natural one. Immediately, a case under BNS sections for criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide and causing death by negligence was registered on the 20th. But during the preliminary investigation, the Assam police were satisfied that this is not culpable homicide; it is a plain and simple murder. For this, within two days of the incident, the Assam government prayed before the court that this incident was a murder, and we requested that section 103 be added. That means this has been treated as a murder from day 3… If we hadn’t added section 103, today all the accused would have been out on bail,” he said.

Seven people have been arrested in connection with the case, including his manager, bandmates and Shyamkanu Mahanta, the organiser of the North East festival for which he was in Singapore

The CM added, “It is a murder. And we will follow a murder case. And I will state today that one has killed him and the others assisted. We have booked four-five people in a murder case. We have not come to fool around with Zubeen, or do politics with him.”

Zubeen’s death is currently one of the most volatile subjects in Assam, particularly with elections just a few months ahead.

During the discussion, opposition MLAs raised several questions to the government. Sorbhog MLA Manoranjan Talukdar and Akhil Gogoi pointed to the fact that the North East India Festival in Singapore was presented by the Ministry of External Affairs, and demanded that authorities connected to the ministry – including MOS Pabitra Margherita, who is from Assam and a close associate of Zubeen’s – be brought into the ambit of the investigation.

LOP Debabrata Saikia requested that a house committee, including representatives of different parties, be constituted. The Opposition MLAs also questioned several procedural aspects of the SIT conducting a probe of an incident that occurred in a foreign country. Sarma responded that by questioning the investigation and the SIT, the opposition MLAs were assisting the accused.

“If the Zubeen Garg issue needs to be kept alive to defeat the BJP in the election, that’s a different thing. If we want to get justice for Zubeen, then please wait till the SIT investigation is completed, don’t demoralise the SIT by speaking against them. The day the investigation report comes, if some lawyer says that this is a weak chargesheet, that’s a different matter. But today, when we haven’t even seen the chargesheet, they are attacking me like this?” he said.

During the debate, there was also a war of words between Manoranjan Talukdar and Sarma over assertions by Sarma that “Zubeen was a Hindu”. Fans of the singer have maintained that Zubeen did not believe in caste or religion. Talukdar accused Sarma of trying to “wash Zubeen with Hindutva”, while Sarma accused Talukdar of “hurting the sentiments of Hindus” by bringing this up in the assembly.

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