Zubeen Garg’s cousin, who had travelled with him to Singapore, has been arrested by the Assam Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) amid a probe into the singer’s mysterious drowning death. Sandipan Garg, a deputy superintendent in the Assam Police Service, is the fifth person arrested in the case, a senior officer told NDTV.
Zubeen Garg died on September 1 during his trip to Singapore for the North East India Festival. The 52-year-old had gone for a swim at a yacht party and was found floating face down in the water.
Sandipan had accompanied Zubeen for what was the police officer’s first foreign trip. He was also present at the yacht party and had brought back to the country some of the singer’s belongings following his death.
He was arrested after being interrogated for five days, officials said.
Sandipan will be presented in the court and police remand will be sought, said Munna Gupta, the Special Director General of Police of Assam’s CID, who is heading the SIT, told NDTV. On being asked why he hasn’t been suspended from the police, Gupta said the arrest occurred today and that further action will be taken by the concerned department.
The police had on October 2 arrested Zubeen’s bandmate, Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, and co-singer Amritprava Mahanta. Both were present at the yacht party. Goswami was seen swimming very close to the late singer while Mahanta was recording them on her mobile phone, sources had earlier said.
Two others, Zubeen Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma and North East India Festival manager Shyamkanu Mahanta, were arrested a day earlier, on October 2. They have been charged with murder, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, criminal conspiracy, and causing death by negligence.