Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday stated that singer Zubeen Garg's death was not a case of culpable homicide, but a plain and simple murder. Citing preliminary investigation reports, he made the revelation during the Assam Assembly winter session, emphasising that they never opposed the adjournment motion on the Zubeen Garg death case. The popular Assamese singer died on September 19 in Singapore in what was described as an unfortunate scuba diving accident.
Murder case from day one: What did CM Sarma reveal?
Answering the opposition's query, Sarma asserted that they had requested the court to include Section 103 along with Sections 61, 105, and 106 of the BNS. He informed that the court accepted their plea after discussions and permitted the addition of Section 103. CM Sarma stressed that this has been a murder case from day one, and without the inclusion of Section 103, all the accused could have secured bail.
---Advertisement---
"Today we haven't opposed the adjournment motion to respect Zubeen Garg, we support this. Zubeen Garg died on September 19, 2025 and next day on September 20 we registered the first FIR. On the first day we suspect that, Zubeen Garg's death is not a natural death. We registered the FIR under Section 61, 105, 106 of BNS on September 20, 2025. During the preliminary investigation, Assam police sure that it is not Culpable homicide, it is a plain and simple murder," he said.
---Advertisement---
"Within two days of the incident, the Assam Government prayers to the court that, this incident is a murder and prayer that Section 103 should be added along with Section 61, 105, 106 of BNS and after discussion the court has accepted our prayer and the court permitted to add the Section 103. This is a case of murder from day 3. If we didn't add Section 103, then all accused might get bail," Sarma added.
Accused are in jail: CM Sarma
CM Sarma also shared details about the accused Shyamkanu Mahanta, Siddharth Sharma, Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, and Amritprava Mahanta, who are currently in jail. He added that investigating officials have so far recorded statements from 252 people and arrested seven individuals. He stated that Assam police had received the post-mortem report from the Singapore authority, which was sent to Guwahati Medical College to examine and the final report from Guwahati Medical College was received on November 5.
"Shyamkanu Mahanta, Siddharth Sharma, Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, Amritprava Mahanta who are currently in jail only because of murder case. This case has been registered under Section 61, 105, 106 and 103 of BNS. This is a plain and simple case of murder. That is the case of SIT,” he said.
Sarma further informed that MHA has requested the Singapore government to help the Assam government through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) in singer’s death case. “The MHA has requested the Singapore government to help the Assam government through Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) and despite this Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar talked with the Singapore authority. The Singapore authority has allowed the Assam police to visit Singapore and we met the Singapore authority on October 21. The Singapore authority sent our required documents to the Assam government on November 4,” said Sarma.