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Lookout notices for Zubeen's manager, NE fest organiser, CM issues warns against ‘attempts to turn Assam into Nepal’
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that police action will be intensified if the two do not appear to present their statements
Lookout notices have been issued against North East India Festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and Zubeen Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma in connection with the singer's death, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday.
Garg died on September 19 while swimming in the sea in Singapore where had gone for the North East India Festival.
Sarma warned them both of an intensified police search operation if they do not make their statement in Guwahati on October 6.
“As the Durga Puja festival will begin, we don’t want them to come right now. But after Dashami, they have to come. They must come to Guwahati on October 6 and present their statements,” he said in a Facebook live video.
“If they do not want to present themselves before the CID, which has been probing the incidents leading to Garg’s death by drowning in the sea in Singapore on September 19. They can approach the court," he said.
Sarma said that Mahanta's bank accounts and credit cards have been frozen and hence cannot “remain outside for long”, as per a PTI report.
He said that while Garg's autopsy from Singapore is awaited, the report from second post-mortem conducted at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital is ready. The chief minister said he has written to the chief justice of Gauhati High Court on Friday for setting up a judicial commission headed by a sitting judge to ensure transparency in the police investigation.
“I have told Union Home Minister Amit Shah today that we will hand over the case to CBI the day it seems that the Assam Police is not being able to get justice for Zubeen,” he added.
The Assam chief minister urged the people to maintain calm and not to indulge in any “anti-government politics in the name of Zubeen in an attempt to turn Assam into Nepal”. Nepal recently witnessed a nationwide agitation triggered by a social media ban by the K P Sharma Oli dispensation.
On Thursday, agitated fans of Garg reportedly stormed his manager's house and threw stones a police vehicles during a raid there. Another fan of the singer, distressed by his death, reportedly jumped off a bridge in Guwahati. As raids were conducted on Mahanta and Sharma's houses, neither of them were found at their homes. were not found at their homes during the raids. Garg's manager's family hasn't been seen since the singer's death, according to reports.
