Singer Zubeen Garg's body reaches cremation site near Guwahati

Guwahati: Popular singer Zubeen Garg's body was taken to Kamarkuchi on the outskirts of Assam's Guwahati, where he would be cremated with full state honours on Tuesday in the presence of his family, well-wishers and prominent personalities.

His body was placed on a podium, next to the platform where his last rites would be performed.

The funeral pyre has been constructed on the platform, covered in a white canopy and decorated with flowers all around it.

Vedic hymns were chanted by priests at the cremation site since early morning.

A team of Assam police personnel were the pallbearers of the casket, carrying Zubeen's body.

A gun salute was given to Zubeen by the Assam Police personnel before his body was taken to the platform, where his last rites would be performed.

A large number of people gathered around the cremation site, including those on the hills surrounding the place, and slogans like 'Long Live Zubeen', 'Jai Zubeen da' reverberated in the area. People were seen singing a song 'Mayabini Ratir buku', which Garg had said many times that this should be sung at his funeral.

Members of the Garg's family, including his wife Garima, paid tributes to the singer at the cremation site.

Union Ministers Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju and Pabitra Margherita, along with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, assembly speaker Biswajit Daimary and several cabinet ministers and senior government officials, also laid floral wreaths on the singer's coffin.

Sonowal, Margherita, the chief minister and leader of the opposition, Debabrata Saikia, went down on their knees to pay tributes to the singer.

His final journey to the cremation ground had begun from the Arjun Bhogeswar Baruah Sports Complex in Guwahati, where his body was brought after the second post-mortem examination at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital.