Widening probe into Zubeen Garg's Singapore death as four arrested

Assamese singer Zubeen Garg, 52, who died in Singapore on September 19, is at the center of a widening criminal probe after Indian investigators arrested four people and added murder-related charges even as Singaporean authorities recorded the cause of death as drowning. The arrests, remands and fresh allegations have intensified scrutiny of the circumstances surrounding his death during a yacht outing off a Singapore island when he was pulled from the water unconscious and later pronounced dead at a hospital.

The Singapore Police Force provided Indian authorities with a copy of the autopsy report and its preliminary findings, which list drowning while swimming as the cause of death and said they did not suspect criminal violence. Back in Assam, the Criminal Investigation Department has formed a nine-member Special Investigation Team and consolidated more than 60 first information reports into a single case. The CID has arrested the festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma, and subsequently detained band members Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amritprabha Mahanta. All four have been remanded to 14 days of custody pending further interrogation.