A fast-track court in Guwahati, hearing the Zubeen Garg death case, on Thursday rejected the bail petition of Shyamkanu Mahanta, one of the seven accused, citing a risk of fleeing. After hearing both sides, fast-track court judge Sharmila Bhuyan denied bail to Mahanta, who was the organiser of the fourth edition of the North East India Festival in Singapore.
Zubeen Garg died in Singapore on September 19 last year while swimming in the sea. The 52-year-old singer had travelled to the island nation to perform at the festival.
Court Observations
In her order, Judge Bhuyan noted that Mahanta did not appear before or contact Assam Police soon after the death. Instead, he left Singapore for Malaysia with his wife and returned to India only after a notice was issued and Interpol was alerted. The judge stated that this pointed to him fleeing from the place of occurrence immediately after the incident, and there appears every possibility of his again fleeing if granted bail.
The court also observed that Mahanta deleted messages, photographs, video, and audio from his mobile handset, which were later recovered by forensic experts. The order said, if accused Mahanta is released on bail, there is a possibility of influencing witnesses and hampering the further progress of the case.
Judge's Verdict
Judge Bhuyan concluded, After going through the entire material on record collected by the investigating agency and the conduct of the accused immediately after the incident, and considering the entire facts and circumstances right from the beginning of the case till end leading to the death of the late singer, the post-conduct of Mahanta, coupled with the decision of the apex court, I am of the considered opinion that this is not a fit case to grant bail. Accordingly, the bail prayer of the accused Mahanta is rejected, and the bail petition is dismissed.
Public prosecutor Z Kamar said, The court observed that Mahanta's post-incident conduct was bad. Instead of helping Zubeen Garg, he left for Malaysia and was called back with a lookout notice. So, there is a risk of fleeing if he is granted bail.
Mahanta had applied for bail on April 10.
Background
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had told the assembly in November last year that Zubeen's death was a case of plain and simple murder. A special investigation team of Assam Police CID probed the death and filed a chargesheet in December, naming seven accused. Four of them face murder charges.
Mahanta, the singer's manager Siddharth Sharma, band members Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amrit Prabha Mahanta, his cousin and Assam Police DSP Sandipan Garg, and police security officers Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya are currently in jail in connection with the case.
