Assam CM Himanta Confirms Joint Meeting Between State SIT and Singapore Police on Oct 21 for Zubeen Garg Investigation

Taking a major leap ahead in the probe into the enigmatic death of popular Assamese singer Zubeen Garg, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on October 16 declared that a meeting between Assam Police and Singapore Police officials has been planned. The top-level coordinating meeting will be held on October 21 in Singapore, a major development in the cross-border investigation that has dominated public attention and evoked emotions throughout Assam.

The Assam delegation will be headed by ADGP Munna Gupta, who leads the specially constituted 10-member Special Investigation Team (SIT). The team is to fly to Singapore on October 20 to enable this vital international collaboration. This meeting comes after Chief Minister Sarma's diplomatic outreach in New Delhi, where he had met the Acting High Commissioner to India of Singapore, Alice Cheng, and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to achieve full cooperation for the Assam police probe. The Chief Minister was sure that the Singapore authorities have guaranteed "all possible support" in this regard.

The groundwork for this kind of cooperation has been progressively laid through official channels. Before this meeting, Singapore officials had spoken to the Indian High Commission, asking for information about the visiting Assam police officials and their itinerary. The SIT has appropriately answered this question. Additionally, in a new legal initiative, Indian officials have invoked the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with Singapore, providing a formalized system of exchanging evidence and details between the two investigative bodies. This reference to the treaty indicates the gravity with which both governments are viewing this investigation.

At the same time, the SIT has been engaged with its local investigation. In this process, 11 members of the Assamese community in Singapore who were with Zubeen Garg at the time of his death have been called by the team. So far, 10 of them have been presented before the investigating officers to record their statements. Among them is one Singaporean citizen yet to depose. This systematic process shows an overall attempt to record all eyewitnesses connected with the singer's final hours.

Zubeen Garg, the cultural icon of Assam, passed away on 19 September in Singapore under circumstances formally reported as drowning. But the death being so enigmatic and the widespread public uproar it created forced the Assam government to constitute the SIT. The team's main mandate is to liaise with Singaporean officials and guarantee a transparent and comprehensive investigation. The meeting slated for October 21 is anticipated to be a turning point, allowing for a direct sharing of important evidence, forensic analysis, and case information. Chief Minister Sarma has continued to underscore the government's unshakeable resolve on social media, employing the hashtag #JusticeForZubeenGarg and assuring that the "collective resolve remains" to see to it that justice is delivered for the deceased singer, whose passing has created a deep chasm in the region's cultural scene.