Assam Chief Information Commissioner, whose brother is accused in Zubeen death case, steps down citing ‘moral grounds’

His brother Shyamkanu was the organiser of the North East India Festival Singapore, for which Zubeen had travelled to that country as its ‘cultural brand ambassador. The singer died on September 19, a day before the festival, when he was on a yacht outing there.

As the director of an events management company, the well-connected Shyamkanu has organised a slew of such festivals in Delhi, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and now Singapore, in association with the Indian embassies in the respective countries, and an annual Rongali festival in Guwahati, which the Assam tourism has supported on multiple occasions.

His connections to the government and power corridors have come under scrutiny since Zubeen’s death. He was arrested last month and is currently lodged in Baksa jail.

The Mahantas are an influential family: apart from Bhaskar, another brother is Gauhati University Vice-Chancellor Nani Gopal Mahanta, who was the Assam government’s education advisor before this appointment.

The CIC oversees the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in a state. Bhaskar Mahanta told The Indian Express that the decision to resign from the office was “independent”.

“I had verbally told the highest office in the state earlier that I would put in my papers if such a thing comes, and the CMO had responded that would be okay. On the 4th of this month, someone wrote a letter to me recognising that I have conducted my roles and responsibility with fairness and told me that he would be filing an RTI application in connection with assistance received by my brother from the government, and sought my cooperation in this. I thought that I need to uphold the highest dignity of the office and democratic tradition, and not allow any aspersions to be cast on my office. So on moral grounds, I decided to resign,” he said.

Shyamkanu is one of seven people who have been arrested following Zubeen’s death on September 19. The Assam police have booked him in a case under charges of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and causing death by negligence, to which murder charges were added later.