Crowd storms home of Zubeen Garg’s manager, pelts stones at police vehicles in Guwahati

Following an outcry over his death and multiple complaints across Assam, alleging mismanagement and neglect, a CID case has been registered against festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma, and others under sections of the BNS pertaining to criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence. On Wednesday, the Assam Police constituted an SIT headed by Special DGP (CID) M P Gupta, to investigate the case.

On Thursday, SIT teams conducted raids at the Geetanagar residence of Mahanta, where no members of the family were present, and the Dhirenpara apartment of Sharma, which was found locked. Both residences are located in Guwahati. Neither Mahanta nor Sharma have been detained, fuelling further anger among irate Garg fans.

At Sharma’s residence, the door lock was broken in the presence of a magistrate before the premises was searched by the SIT. While the team was working, a crowd of hundreds of people formed at the gate of the building, demanding that Sharma be located and apprehended. They initially tried to push through the gates of the building, but were pushed back by police, and the RAF was deployed. Later in the evening, when members of the SIT left the building in two vehicles, members of the crowd could be seen throwing stones at the vehicles. In response, security personnel resorted to lathi charge to disperse the crowd.

In the meantime, Mahanta on Thursday released a video on his personal Facebook profile, saying he had not returned to Assam from Singapore because of “thousands” of threat messages that he said he had received over the phone.

He alleged there is a campaign against him and that “kangaroo courts” had passed a “decree” holding him responsible for the incident.

“Calling Zubeen Garg to Singapore for the festival is not a sin; it’s the biggest event from the Northeast. So, calling the biggest artist from the Northeast, that too (someone) who was the cultural brand ambassador for the festival, was our duty, not a sin,” he said in the video, reiterating his earlier statement that he was in a meeting when the incident had taken place. “We (the organising team) were far away from the site when the incident happened,” he said.

On Wednesday, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the Assam government had decided to prohibit Mahanta and any organisation associated with him from holding any functions or festivals within the state, and to blacklist any events associated with him from any financial grant, advertisement, or sponsorship.