Zubeen’s secretary, festival organiser among 4 accused charged with murder in SIT chargesheet

The Special Investigation Team, probing the death of Zubeen Garg, charged four accused, including the singer’s secretary Siddhartha Sharma and festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, with murder in the chargesheet filed in a court here on Friday. Garg’s band members Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta have also been charged with murder, lawyers said. Shyamkanu Mahanta was the chief organiser of the North East India Festival, which was attended by Garg in Singapore, where he died under mysterious circumstances while swimming in the sea on September 19. Garg's cousin and suspended Assam Police officer Sandipan Garg has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the chargsheet submitted at the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court here earlier in the day, the lawyers said. The singer's two personal security officers (PSOs) Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya have been charged under Section 31c of the BNS, which deals with criminal breach of trust by misappropriating funds or property entrusted to them, they said. A total of seven people have so far been arrested in connection with Garg’s death, by the SIT, which is led by Special DGP M P Gupta. Over 300 witnesses have also been examined as part of the probe. The Singapore Police Force (SPF), carrying out an independent investigation into Garg's death, had said in a statement that preliminary probe has not indicated any foul play, and that the investigations may take up to another three months. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters in Kokrajhar that the promise made to the people of Assam in connection with Garg's death has been fulfilled with the SIT filing the chargesheet “before the stipulated time frame”. ''We had taken the responsibility of ensuring justice to Zubeen Garg and we fulfilled this with the SIT submitting the chargesheet within a record time to the court today,'' Sarma said. The CM had claimed in the recently concluded assembly session that Garg's death was ''plain and simple murder''.