Guwahati: A second postmortem of singer Zubeen Garg’s body will be conducted Tuesday morning at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) following demands from certain sections of Assam people, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said Monday.
The first autopsy was conducted in Singapore, where Garg died by drowning on September 19. His last rites will be performed on the outskirts of Guwahati Tuesday with full state honours.
Sarma said that after the post-mortem examination at GMCH, his journey to the cremation ground will begin at 9.30 am, two hours after the earlier-announced time.
‘It (second postmortem) is not a demand from the public but from certain fringe elements, and we have decided to conduct it with his wife’s consent,” the chief minister said at a press conference here.
‘We do not want to create any controversy over Zubeen, so this decision was taken,’ he said.
The CM said that he personally was not interested in ‘cutting up his body’ as he is a ‘die-hard Zubeen fan but when a section, even if they are in a minority, demands it, my personal wish does not matter. This is democracy’.
After the Singapore doctors had conducted the postmortem, ‘I don’t think it was necessary for another postmortem as they have more technical expertise, but there should not be any scope for any section to indulge in any kind of politics over Zubeen,’ Sarma said.
The postmortem will be conducted by a team of doctors from GMCH and AIIMS, Guwahati.
‘It will take around two hours in the morning, and so his final journey will begin at 9.30 am instead of the earlier scheduled time of 7.30 am,’ the CM said.
On September 19, Garg (52) died while swimming in the sea in Singapore, where he had gone to attend the North East India Festival (NEIF).
The people of Assam had also initially said that there was no need for a postmortem in Singapore as they ‘did not want their favourite singer’s body to be touched with knives and scissors after his death’, he said.
‘Then again, there was a demand that the Assam government should not conduct it as they did not have faith in us, and it should be done in Singapore. Now, a certain section with a political motive has demanded another postmortem,’ Sarma claimed.
Accordingly, ‘I asked Union minister Pabitra Margherita to discuss the matter with his wife Garima Saikia Garg, and she said she had no objection to the second postmortem,’ he said.
Regarding the investigations into the case registered by the CID following Garg’s death, the CM said there are several FIRs, including one in Bongaigaon naming two more persons – the owner of a private media house and a musician from the singer’s team.
Earlier, cases were registered against NEIF Chief Organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and the singer’s manager Siddhartha Sharma.
He said that the CID will record the statements of all those who have filed the FIRs and will take necessary steps accordingly.
The state government will also apply for a ‘letter of rogatory’, a formal, written request from a court in one country to another court in a second nation for judicial assistance, and a team of Assam police will go to Singapore to collect evidence.
‘There is a procedure to be followed and we will do it step by step, ‘ he added.
The CM had said Sunday that, as the place of occurrence is Singapore, the police of that country will investigate the case and ‘we can only look into whether he was taken there as a part of a conspiracy’.
He also expressed concern over various social media posts about people accompanying Zubeen to Singapore and even about his wife, who has just lost her husband, which is very painful, unfortunate and against Assamese culture.
‘If people have any evidence or concrete facts regarding the allegations they are making on social media, they should come and give their statements. We are monitoring all social media posts, and necessary actions will be taken against those who are just speculating with a motive,’ he said.
The CM said that a section of people are trying to take advantage of the ‘grief of genuine Zubeen fans and because of them, many could not enter the sports complex to pay their homage. We will not allow anybody to take the law into their hands and take strict action against them.
