Lawyer Ratul Bora, who filed the first police complaint after singer Zubeen Garg’s death in Singapore, said on Saturday that he would challenge in the Supreme Court the Gauhati High Court’s decision to grant bail to two of the seven accused, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
Bora questioned the Assam government’s role in the legal proceedings and claimed that the accused were securing bail because of “loopholes” in the charge sheet filed by the state police. Garg’s band member and singer Amritprava Mahanta and his cousin, suspended Assam Police DSP Sandipon Garg, have been granted bail by the high court.
Addressing a press conference in Morigaon, Bora said, “Due to loopholes in the police charge sheet, the accused in the case have been obtaining bail one after another. The government’s role in the legal proceedings has been unsatisfactory.”
He added, “I will approach the Supreme Court, challenging the high court order granting bail to two of the accused. I will plead with the apex court to ensure that the other accused do not get bail,” PTI reported.
Besides Mahanta and Sandipon, North East India Festival chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma, band member Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, and personal security officers Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya are accused in the case and remain in jail.
The two personal security officers were granted bail in a disproportionate assets case in September but remain in jail in connection with the singer’s death.
Garg, a celebrated singer-songwriter, died under mysterious circumstances in Singapore on September 19 last year while swimming in the sea. He was in the country to attend the fourth edition of the North East India Festival.
A special investigation team of the Assam Police’s Criminal Investigation Department investigated Garg’s death after more than 60 first information reports were registered across the state. The team filed its charge sheet before a local court in Morigaon in December, naming seven accused, four of whom face murder charges. A special fast-track sessions court is hearing the case.
Singapore Police conducted a separate investigation and concluded that there was no evidence of foul play. A Singapore court also said Garg was severely intoxicated and drowned off Lazarus Island after declining to wear a life jacket.
Assam authorities, however, maintained that the findings of the Singapore Police investigation would not affect the case in the state. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had told the state assembly that Garg’s death was a case of “plain and simple murder”.
Bora will now seek the Supreme Court’s intervention against the bail granted to Mahanta and Sandipon and ask it to ensure that the remaining accused are not released on bail as the case continues.
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