NEW DELHI, Jan 14: The Singapore police has again refuted the suspicion of the Assam police that the popular singer-songwriter Zubeen Garg, who drowned in Singapore last September, was murdered. The Singapore police told a coroner’s court in Singapore on Wednesday that the deceased singer had declined a life jacket.
Garg, 52, was with a yacht party on September 19, when he drowned a day before he was scheduled to perform at the North East India Festival in Singapore. The Assamese singer initially wore a life jacket but removed it and later refused to put on a second one offered to him, the chief investigating officer told the court in the opening of the inquiry.
Several witnesses saw the singer trying to swim back to the yacht when he went limp and began floating with his face in the water, the Channel said quoting the officer. Garg was promptly rescued back to the yacht and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was administered to him, but he was pronounced dead later that same day.
The singer, the court was told, had a medical history of hypertension and epilepsy, with his last known epileptic episode in 2024. However, it is unclear if he had taken his regular medicine for epilepsy on the day of the incident, with the evidence of witnesses insufficient to establish that he had actually taken it, the court was informed.
The Singapore police do not suspect any criminal offence in his death, the court was told. The investigating officer described the day’s events: during the first swim, Garg removed his life jacket; he later returned to the yacht and reportedly said he was tired.
“When he decided to resume swimming, Garg was offered a second, smaller life jacket, but he declined to wear it. He entered the water without a life jacket and started swimming in the direction of Lazarus Island alone,” said the chief investigating officer.
An autopsy performed on Garg determined the cause of death to be drowning. Some injuries were found on his body but they were found to have been sustained during CPR and rescue efforts, the media report on the court proceedings said. Medications for his hypertension and epilepsy were found in his blood, with no other drugs detected.
The chief investigating officer in the case told the court that Garg and 20-odd people on the yacht, including his friends and colleagues, had some snacks, drinks and alcohol on the boat. Several witnesses said they saw Garg drinking alcohol, with one witness saying he had consumed a few cups of liquor, gin and whisky, along with a few sips of Guinness Stout, the report said.
A toxicology analysis found that Garg had a blood alcohol concentration of 333 milligrams per 100ml of blood, which suggests severe intoxication resulting in impaired coordination and reflexes, the court was told. The forensic pathologist, who conducted Garg’s autopsy, testified that it could not be determined whether or not he had suffered a seizure, saying there were no signs such as a bitten tongue.
The captain of the yacht, Crazy Monkey, testified that he saw Garg’s friends holding onto his arms when the singer boarded the yacht, as he was unable to walk properly. He also claimed that he had given two safety briefings, and that when he saw Garg entering the water without a life jacket the second time, he said, “I told his friend that he is drunk, and if he wants to get into the water, he needs to wear a life jacket.”
He also corroborated that most of the passengers, including Garg, were drinking shots. His witness statements also included details such as when he saw Garg face down (in the waters), he quickly shouted at his friends before swimming to the singer himself.
Back home, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Assam Police is probing Garg’s death case after more than 60 FIRs were lodged across the state. It has charged four accused, festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, the singer’s secretary Siddhartha Sharma and his two band members, Shekharjyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta, with murder, and a fifth one, the singer’s cousin and suspended police officer Sandipan Garg, with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
(Manas Dasgupta)
