Guwahati, Oct 18 (PTI): The Assam Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which investigated singer Zubeen Garg’s death case, on Sunday said it will move the Supreme Court against the Gauhati High Court’s granting of bail to two of the seven accused, a senior police officer said.
He said the petition will be filed as soon as the apex court reopens after the ongoing holidays.
Special Director General of Police, CID, Munna Prasad Gupta, addressing a press conference here, said, “The honourable Gauhati High Court has granted bail to two accused in case no. 18/25. We have studied the orders, and after analysing those and taking legal opinion, we have decided to move the honourable Supreme Court against the bail orders.”
He, however, refused to comment on the bail orders.
“Court holidays are on. And as soon as it reopens, we will file it,” he added.
Garg’s band member and singer Amritprava Mahanta, and his cousin and suspended Assam Police DSP Sandipon Garg have obtained bail from the high court through separate orders. Mahanta, who was granted bail on October 9, was released from judicial custody, while Garg was awaiting execution of his bail order granted on October 16.
Gupta said 134 witnesses have been examined so far by the fast-track court that is hearing the death case. “The trial of the case is progressing well. No witness has turned hostile,” he added.
Morigaon-based lawyer Ratul Bora, who had filed the first police complaint following Garg’s death in Singapore, had on Saturday said that he will move the Supreme Court challenging the Gauhati High Court’s bail orders.
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 island country to attend the fourth edition of the North East India Festival (NEIF).
Besides Mahanta and Sandipon, NEIF chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, the singer’s manager Siddharth Sharma, band member Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, and personal security officers (PSOs) Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya are in jail as accused in the case.
The two PSOs had been granted bail in a disproportionate assets case in September, but remain in jail in connection with the singer’s death case.
A special investigation team (SIT) of the state CID probed Garg’s death after more than 60 FIRs were registered across the state.
The SIT filed its charge sheet before a local court here in December last year, naming the seven accused. Four of them are facing murder charges.
The Singapore Police carried out a separate probe and concluded that there was no evidence of foul play.
A court in Singapore had also said the popular Indian singer-songwriter was severely intoxicated and had drowned off Lazarus Island after declining to wear a life jacket.
The authorities in Assam, however, maintained that the findings of the Singapore Police probe will not impact the case here.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had, in the state assembly, said that Garg’s death was a case of “plain and simple murder”.
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