Several prominent citizens invited for SIT meeting on Zubeen’s death probe decline invite

Guwahati: Several prominent persons invited by Assam Police CID for a meeting on Tuesday to share an update on its investigation into Zubeen Garg's death in Singapore last month have declined to attend it.

While the list of invitees, mostly journalists and authors, has not been shared by the CID, several of them took to social media to reveal having received telephone calls to be present at the meeting.

The 52-year-old singer-composer died while swimming in the sea in Singapore on September 19. He was there to attend the 4th North East India Festival.

CID Special DG Munna Prasad Gupta, who is heading the 10-member Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the death, said on Monday that a few eminent members of civil society have been invited to give them an update on the case and progress on investigations on Tuesday afternoon.

Seven persons -- North East India Festival chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, the singer's manager Siddharth Sharma, his two band members Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amrit Prabha Mahanta, his cousin and Assam Police DSP Sandipan Garg, and his PSOs Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya – have been arrested in the case so far.

Garg's close associate Rahul Gautam Sharma, who was among the four persons who had lit the funeral pyre, said the only demand at the moment was a foolproof chargesheet by the investigating agencies.

"Give justice to Zubeen Garg. Let the investigating agency submit an error-free report before the court. Let us not discuss any other matter until then. We can have the 'sarkari cha-singora' (government's tea-snacks) later," the lyricist-composer said in a post on Facebook, declining the invite.

Leaders of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), turning down the invite, said in a statement that it has decided against attending the meeting so that the accused cannot question the neutrality of SIT for discussing progress of the case with an organisation which is persistently seeking a thorough probe into Garg's death.

Author-editor Anuradha Sharma Pujaree, also in a post on Facebook, said when she received the phone call to participate in the meeting, she had declined the invitation.

"I also think that instead of inviting me, if people with legal and medical science knowledge were invited, they could have been better placed to give suggestions that would help the SIT investigation," she said.

Sharma Pujaree further maintained that if the government were to convene a meeting with various organisations and Garg's family members and update them on the progress of the probe, it would lend credibility and transparency to the process.

Another eminent author, Phanindra Devchoudhury, also said that he has turned down the invite received over the phone.

"The issue which I had ended from my end in a phone call of a few seconds is active on social media. It is good to keep the discussion going on. People are revealed all of a sudden," he wrote on Facebook.

Editor-in-chief of a local television channel Rajdeep Bailung Baruah, said as a responsible journalist, he has been putting forth all known details and expert opinion before the public in Garg's death case.

As he is no legal or medical expert, Baruah maintained that there was no reason for being invited to the meeting and has turned down the invite.

"We have faith in the legal system. Let law take its own course. This is my personal decision," he added.

Among those confirming attendance is senior journalist Atanu Bhuyan, who in a post on the social media site said he has the "courage" to attend the meeting.

Bhuyan said he will be going to the meeting as a journalist as the entire state wants to know the circumstances behind Garg's death.

"Though I am not a people's representative, as a close friend of Zubeen, I will meet the SIT and inform the public about what they have to say…I am not a coward not to be able to be present before the SIT," Bhuyan added.