Zubeen Garg’s manager, Siddhartha Sharma, and the chief organiser of the North East India Festival (NEIF), Shyamkanu Mahanta, have both been arrested in connection with the singer’s death in Singapore on September 19, police said on Wednesday.
While Mahanta was arrested upon his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi from Singapore, Sharma was arrested from an apartment in Gurugram. Both were taken to Guwahati early on Wednesday morning, a senior police official told reporters.
Both have been remanded to 14 days’ police custody by the Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate, said a senior police officer. Special DGP (CID) Munna Prasad Gupta said investigations into the singer's death will be ''conducted in accordance with the law''.
''On the basis of the interpol notice, immigration authorities detained Mahanta when he arrived at Delhi airport from Singapore and handed him over to Assam Police'', he said.
Regarding Sharma, Gupta said, ''We tracked his location to Delhi and Rajasthan. Last night, we tracked him near the Delhi-Haryana border and arrested him''.
Gupta also said they had seized their mobile phones and further investigations are on.
After they landed at the Guwahati airport, the duo was taken to the Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate's residence as courts are closed for Durga Puja festivities.
Also Read: Zubeen Garg’s family approaches Assam CID, seeks probe
Once the court remanded them to 14 days' police custody, both were handcuffed and taken to the CID office.
Police sources have also shared the photographs of both Mahanta and Sharma in handcuffs and behind the bars in the CID office.
Tight security was in place both at both the airport and along the way to the CJM's residence with Assam Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel accompanying the convoy.
Meanwhile, Zubeen's wife Garima Saikia Garg, who is in Jorhat for the 13th day rituals of the deceased singer, told reporters that she was satisfied that the duo had been brought to Assam as ''we are all waiting to know what happened to him in his last moments''.
Garima said she has full faith in the investigating team and hoped that now they will soon know what exactly happened in Singapore.
The Assam government had constituted a 10-member SIT, led by Special DGP M P Gupta, to investigate Garg’s death in Singapore due to drowning in the sea.
The investigative body issued notices to several people, including Mahanta, Sharma and members of the Singapore Assam Association as well as those who had gone to Singapore for the festival. They were all asked to appear before the SIT and record their statements.
Assam chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, had said earlier that a 'lookout notice' through the Interpol had been issued against Mahanta and Sharma, asking them to appear before the CID by October 6.
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