E-Paper
Zubeen Garg’s viscera report received, sent for analysis: Assam CID chief
The Assam CID chief said Zubeen Garg’s viscera report was received from the CFSL on Friday evening, and a special team of the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) is analysing it
Silchar: The Assam police have received the viscera sample test report of singer Zubeen Garg from New Delhi’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), confirmed the special director general of police of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Munna Prasad Gupta.
Gupta, who is also the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the singer’s death, said that the report has been sent to Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for further analysis.
“The report was received from the CFSL on Friday evening, and a special team of the GMCH is analysing it. The inputs will be added to the final postmortem report of the late singer,” he told the media in Guwahati on Saturday afternoon.
Zubeen Garg died in Singapore on September 19, and initially, the cause of death was cited as drowning by the Singapore hospital. However, the Assam Police later constituted an SIT to investigate possible foul play.
The SIT, on October 1, arrested Garg’s Singapore festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and his secretary Siddharth Sharma in connection with the case.
A day later, two musicians, Amritprabha Mahanta and Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, were also arrested. All four were sent to 14-day police remand, and several other individuals have since been summoned for questioning.
Garg’s cousin Sandipan Garg and two personal security officers (PSOs) were arrested earlier this week in connection with the same case. Gupta said that all of them are currently being interrogated, and after the remand period, they will be produced before the court again as per procedure.
The SIT also summoned 11 Assam residents living in Singapore who were present at the yacht party where Zubeen died, but only one of them appeared before the Assam Police. “We are constantly asking them to cooperate with the investigation, and if they fail, required legal actions will be taken,” Gupta said.
He added that the Assam police have appealed to the Singapore police to support them in the investigation and that the Government of India is assisting in obtaining the required mutual legal assistance.
“We cannot investigate in Singapore, but we can assist their police if they allow us. We have asked them to give us a report with a fresh investigation, which we’ll include in our final report before filing it in court,” Gupta added.
Arrested singer Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, during interrogation, claimed that Zubeen Garg was a victim of a planned murder orchestrated by Siddharth Sharma and Shyamkanu Mahanta, and that poison was used to execute the plan.
Responding to this, Assam chief mMinister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that Goswami might be making this claim to defend himself, and the viscera sample test will help the police establish whether poison was used.
Earlier this week, the chief minister said that if the death was a planned murder, nobody involved in it would be spared. Zubeen’s wife, Garima Garg, said that the family members are satisfied with the investigation process and that they believe in the law.
After Zubeen’s death, nearly 60 police complaints were lodged in Assam, including one first information report (FIR) by his family members. All the cases are being handled by the CID, according to Himanta.
Zubeen’s body underwent two postmortems, one in Singapore and another in Guwahati on the day of the funeral. The report of the first autopsy was handed over to Garima Garg by state government authorities earlier this week, but she later gave it to the Assam Police, saying that she is not an expert in legal matters.
The chief minister later announced that the report would not be made public for the sake of the investigation, but anyone who wishes to read it can visit the CID office with prior approval and see it.
