New Delhi: Continuing its investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of celebrated Assamese musician Zubeen Garg, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Assam Police has thus far taken four people into custody.

Garg died after drowning near an island in Singapore.

As per news reports, Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma, and Shyamkanu Mahanta, the founder and organiser of the North East Festival in Singapore, were taken into custody in New Delhi on September 30 and early on October 1, respectively. They were brought to Guwahati for interrogation on October 2. Two other persons who had accompanied Garg to Singapore – singer Amritprabha Mahanta and Garg's band member Shekharjyoti Goswami – were arrested on October 2 evening in Guwahati. 

Before they were arrested, both Amritprabha and Shekharjyoti were interrogated for two days in a row by the state CID team assigned to look into Garg’s sudden demise in Singapore during a yacht party at St John’s island on September 19. Both were present on the spot that day. While Amritprabha had caught on her cellphone camera the entire episode leading to Garg’s demise, Shekharjyoti was seen swimming close to him.

On being produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate on the morning of October 3, both Amritprabha and Sekharjyoti were remanded to 14-day police custodies.

A CID official told the news agency PTI, “We have found some evidence against them. So, to enquire further, their arrest was necessary.” 

There had been a massive public demand to bring Shyamkanu Mahanta and Siddharth Sharma to Assam from Singapore and Delhi respectively. The state CID took them into custody nine days after Garg’s death. Though Sharma had returned to India with Garg’s body, he was not taken into custody by the state police then. 

While chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that a team had been dispatched to Singapore to bring back Mahanta, and another sent to Delhi to nab Sharma, the state director general of police Harmeet Singh had contradicted Sarma by telling reporters that only one team of the CID had gone to Delhi. That team arrested Sharma from Gurgaon on September 30. It held Mahanta at the Delhi airport as soon as he landed from Singapore early on October 1, and brought them together by a flight to Guwahati. 

They were immediately taken to the residence of the chief judicial magistrate in Guwahati who sent them to 14-day police custody. Since then, both have been at the CID office in Guwhati’s Ulubari area.

The arrests were carried out after CM Sarma was criticised by Assam’s public for stating in a Facebook Live on October 29 that Mahanta and Sharma would be arrested only if they do not present themselves to the CID after the Durga Puja holidays. Acting on the FIRs, including one by Garg’s family, the CID team had earlier asked both to present themselves by October 6.

Sarma has also been accused of politicising Garg’s death for stating that people should not vote for him in the coming 2026 elections if he fails to deliver “justice” for Garg.  

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