Guwahati: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the death of Assamese singer Zubeen Garg has arrested North East India Festival (NEIF) chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and the singer’s manager Siddhartha Sharma, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
Mahanta was taken into custody at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport soon after his return from Singapore, where the festival was being held.
Sharma, on the other hand, was apprehended from a residential apartment in Gurugram late Tuesday night.
Both were flown to Guwahati in the early hours of Wednesday and are currently being interrogated by the SIT, police sources said.
The arrests mark a major turn in the high-profile case surrounding the sudden demise of Garg, who passed away in Singapore on September 19.
The singer was reportedly on a yacht outing when he developed breathing complications while swimming, following which he was rushed to a hospital but could not be revived.
Singapore authorities listed “drowning” as the cause of death in the preliminary death certificate. To ensure a thorough investigation, the Assam government has set up a 10-member SIT headed by Special DGP M.P. Gupta.
The team has already questioned several individuals associated with the festival, including members of the Singapore Assam Association and others who had travelled from India for the event.
Notices were earlier served to Mahanta and Sharma, asking them to depose before the SIT, but both allegedly failed to cooperate, prompting the issuance of a ‘lookout notice’.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had earlier stated that Interpol was approached to help track down Mahanta and Sharma after they did not respond to repeated summons. He had assured that every possible legal step would be taken to get to the bottom of the case, given the widespread public outcry and allegations of a possible conspiracy behind Garg’s untimely end.
With the two key figures now under arrest, the SIT is expected to intensify its probe to piece together the events that led to the singer’s tragic death abroad.
Further arrests have not been ruled out.
(IANS)
