Zubeen Garg death case: Several injured as mob pelts stones at police vehicle carrying accused to jail

Guwahati: Public anger against the sudden death of singer Zubeen Garg spilled onto streets on Wednesday as a mob pelted stones on police vehicles carrying five accused arrested in connection with the case to a jail in Baksa in western Assam.

Several police personnel and journalists were injured in stone pelting while police resorted to lathi charge and firing of tear gas shells to control the mob. Two police vehicles were set on fire during the clash, a police official in Baksa said.

The five were shifted from Guwahati to Baksa jail after they were produced in a court following expiry of their 14 days police remand on Wednesday.

The five includes Shyamkanu Mahanta, the organiser of the Northeast India Festival in Singapore, Zubeen's manager Siddharth Sharma, his cousin brother Sandipan Garg and two PSOs, Nandeswar Bora and Paresh Baishya.

They were arrested by the SIT probing into the case and were remanded in 14-days judicial custody. Sandipan is a police officer.

Two of Zubeen's band mates, musician Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and female singer Amritprabha Mahanta are in SIT remand.

The SIT added murder charge against Shyamkanu and Siddharth after Shekhar alleged that the duo had poisoned Garg leading to his death on a sea in Singapore on September 19. Reports of two postmortems have not yet been made public by the SIT.

Advocate Pradip Konwar, who appeared in the court for Assam government on Wednesday, told reporters that the five were remanded to judicial custody as the accused did not file bail petitions.

He said the court issued the order for shifting them to the jail in Baksa after the government expressed concerns over their safety in Guwahati jail. The newly constructed jail at Musalpur in Baksa district, about 120km from Guwahati, was inaugurated in June.

The violent protest erupted amid an online campaign named #ZusticeForZubeen and an agitation demanding justice to Garg's family and fans.

The Opposition parties have demanded that the inquiry be handed over to the CBI while the government claimed and the SIT stated that the investigation was progesssing on the right track to give justice to Zubeen's family and fans.