Exclusive | Zubeen Garg was instigated to venture into sea, not enough done to save him: Police

Zubeen was in Singapore as a cultural brand ambassador for the North East India Festival. Before the festival began, he went for a yacht outing, reportedly organised by members of the Assam Association Singapore, and lost consciousness while swimming. He was declared dead at Singapore General Hospital. The death certificate issued by Singapore authorities stated that the cause of death was drowning, while the Assam Police found that he was intoxicated at the time.

Police have charged four persons with murder: festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, Zubeen’s manager Siddharth Sharma, and co-musicians Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta. His cousin and Assam Police Service officer Sandipan Garg has been charged with culpable homicide. Mahanta was in Singapore for the festival while the other four were on the yacht when the incident happened.

It is learnt that Zubeen’s manager Sharma has been accused of “causing the state of intoxication” which impaired his coordination and reflexes and “causing him to swim without a life jacket”, that too against the medical opinion of his doctor, who had advised him to stay away from water and fire. The chargesheet, it is learnt, also states that Zubeen had a history of epilepsy.

Drummer Goswami has been accused of instigating Zubeen to go into the water and not saving him “despite being in the best position”, it is learnt.

It is learnt that organiser Mahanta has been accused of giving Zubeen a bottle of whiskey “against medical advice” and not informing the organisers of the yacht party of his medical condition. He has also been accused of not making medical arrangements, because of which Zubeen “missed the golden hour” and was “taken in an ambulance 75 minutes after the incident”, it is learnt.

Singer Mahanta, it is learnt, has been accused of “causing excessive drinking of alcohol”, and not informing Zubeen’s manager, organiser or wife that he was inebriated and food- deprived and sleep-deprived. She has also been accused of encouraging him to swim without a life jacket, it is learnt.

Manager Sharma has also been accused of “making plans to retire the victim and making financial gains out of him” and of “diversification of his financial interests in the recent past by investing in Mahavir Aqua, hotel heritage and transportation business”, it is learnt.

Garg’s cousin Sandipan is accused of “instigating Shekhar and therefore the victim to go into the water to swim a long distance to the beach” and “jumping in late to save the victim”, it is learnt.

The two other accused are police personnel serving as Garg’s Personal Security Officers (PSOs), Nandeswar Bora and Paresh Baishya, but had not accompanied him to Singapore. They have been charged with criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust.

The chargesheet, it is learnt, states that the accused police personnel were entrusted with Zubeen’s movable property, which they “dishonestly misappropriated and converted the same to their own use”.

The lawyer for the accused did not comment on the development.

The trial will begin on December 22 in the Sessions Court, to which the case has been transferred.

The chargesheet is learnt to refer to 394 “witnesses cited/relied upon”, including 10 Assamese people living in Singapore who were involved in the yacht outing and two officials from the High Commission of India in Singapore. The rest are a large number of police and medical investigators, doctors from Assam and other parts of India, friends, family and acquaintances of Zubeen and the accused, and members of different civil organisations in Assam.