Zubeen Garg (L) and Himanta Biswa Sarma (R).
Credit: PTI Photos
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that the police will not be able to "join the dots" if the Assamese people, who were present on the yacht at the time of singer Zubeen Garg's death in Singapore, join the probe.
Garg died under mysterious circumstances in Singapore on September 19 while swimming in the sea. A number of Assamese community people living there and the singer had been on a yacht trip. He had gone to the Southeast Asian nation to attend the 4th edition of the North East India Festival, organised by Shyamkanu Mahanta and his company.
"Our entire concern now is whether the people living in Singapore will come or not. If they do not come, we will not be able to complete the inquiry. They were the main people behind the yacht trip," Sarma told reporters after meeting Garg's family here on Saturday.
"Assam Police cannot go to Singapore, so it cannot take up the investigation there. They (Assamese community people) are in Singapore, and it is not under my jurisdiction. Unless they come there, nobody will be able to join the dots," he said.
The state CID, which is probing the death of the singer, had issued notices to some members of the Assam Association, Singapore, to present themselves before it by October 6.
"Their parents stay in Assam. So, we, the people of Assam, must put pressure on the parents to ask their wards to come here for the probe," the CM added.
More than 60 FIRs have been lodged across the state against Shyamkanu Mahanta, and around 10 others, including his manager Siddharth Sharma and band members Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amrit Prabha Mahanta.
These four individuals have already been arrested in the case and are serving 14 days of police remand each.
Sarma said, "The people of Assam should put pressure on the Assamese community of Singapore so that those concerned are sent here. A few of them have already written to us that they cannot come due to some problems. But they have the responsibility as an Assamese." To bring the people concerned through law is a different matter, but it will be sooner if there is public pressure on them, he added.
"If they don't come by October 6, we will have to enter another cycle," Sarma said without elaborating.
When asked about reports of Garg's drummer Goswami's claim before the police that the singer was poisoned, the CM said that many things will be spoken about during the course of the investigation.
"On October 10, the viscera report will come. So, we will come to know on October 11 what actually happened. But the police's duty is to note everything in the case diary.
Sarma stressed that the poisoning statement is not of the police, but of one accused.
"Now, why has he made that statement? Is it to safeguard himself or to blame someone else these things will be revealed during the investigation," he added.
The Assam government on Friday set up a one-man judicial commission, headed by Justice Soumitra Saikia of the Gauhati High Court, to probe the death of Garg, a cultural icon of the state.
The chief minister said that the sitting high court judge will also have an opportunity to oversee the ongoing CID probe of the high-profile case.
"It is a kind of body which will also take care of the proofs, and if they find that we are doing something wrong, the judicial commission will be able to be stricter on us. It will be a completely independent commission," Sarma said.
He also asserted that in Assam, a sitting judge had never been entrusted with the responsibility of inquiring into an issue.