Zubeen Garg death case: Singer’s manager Siddhartha Sharma, Singapore fest organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta arrested

Garg died on September 19 when he was in Singapore for the North East India Festival. He had lost consciousness while swimming during a yacht outing and was declared dead after he was taken to Singapore General Hospital. The death certificates issued by the Singapore authorities state the cause of death as “drowning”.

Following a slew of complaints filed across the state against Mahanta and Sharma – who was present during the yacht outing – for causing death by negligence and mismanagement, the Assam CID registered a consolidated case on this matter against Mahanta, Sharma and others under sections of the BNS pertaining to criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence.

Both Sharma and Mahanta had issued statements saying that they were avoiding returning to Assam as they feared threats to their safety.

CID arrests singer Zubeen Garg’s manager Siddhartha Sharma (right) and festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta (left) from Delhi on Wednesday. (ANI)

On Tuesday, the MHA wrote to the Singapore government seeking assistance in the probe from authorities there based on a Mutual Legal Assistance agreement between the governments.

After being brought to Guwahati, they were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, which sent them to 14-day police custody. “We have been given custody of them for 14 days. During this time, we will interrogate then extensively. The probe in other aspects will continue at a rapid pace,” said CID Special DGP M P Gupta, who heads the SIT.

He said that Mahanta had been detained by immigrant authorities at Delhi airport after he landed them from Singapore, based on a lookout notice issued by the CID. He said Sharma was tracked down by Assam Police to a location near the Delhi-Haryana border, from where he was apprehended Tuesday night. Both were brought to Guwahati early Wednesday.

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