A team of senior police officers from Assam, who are scheduled to reach Singapore on October 20, will meet the Singapore Police authorities the next day.
Silchar: The Singapore Police authorities have allowed Assam Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing singer Zubeen Garg’s death, to travel to their country, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday.
A team of senior police officers from Assam, who are scheduled to reach Singapore on October 20, will meet the Singapore Police authorities the next day.
CM Sarma met external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and Singapore’s acting high commissioner Alice Cheng in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of the Assam Police team visiting Singapore. “Another step forward towards justice for our beloved Zubeen. The Singapore Police authorities will meet the Assam Police team led by Sri Munna Gupta, ADGP (Additional Director General of Police) and head of SIT, on 21st October,” Sarma wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Our team will travel to Singapore on 20th October accordingly. Our collective resolve remains, Justice for Zubeen will prevail,” he added.
Following the death of Garg while swimming in the sea during a yacht party arranged on September 19, the CID of Assam Police registered a case of murder, criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and death due to negligence.
The Assam Police have arrested seven individuals, including a cousin and a senior police officer, on murder charges within a month.
The SIT, which was constituted under the leadership of ADGP Gupta, who is also the head of Assam Police’s Criminal Investigation Department, had sought permission to visit Singapore for further investigation.
CM Sarma, after meeting Jaishankar and Cheng, said that the discussions had progressed positively and the Singapore Police were willing to support the probe. Cheng said the Singapore authorities had submitted Zubeen’s post-mortem report to the Government of India and their police were continuing the investigation.
Meanwhile, a Guwahati court on Wednesday sent five of the seven accused arrested, including Northeast India Festival (NEIF) chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and Zubeen’s former secretary Siddharth Sharma, to Baksa district jail after producing them before the Kamrup district court.
Violence broke out outside a district jail in Assam on Wednesday during the transfer of five people, as an agitated mob resorted to stone pelting and torched vehicles, prompting police to resort to baton charge and tear gas shelling to control the situation. Several people, including security personnel and journalists, were injured in the violence outside the Baksa district jail, police said.
