Zubeen Garg’s death: Home Minister grants sanction under BNSS to file chargesheet against accused

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has granted sanction under Sec 208 of the BNSS to move against the Assamese singer Zubeen Garg’s death accused, permitting the Assam government to file a chargesheet, said Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday.

Section 208 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) deals with offences committed outside India and requires the Central Government’s prior sanction to inquire into or try such an offence in India.

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The popular singer died on September 19 while swimming in Singapore without a life jacket. He was in the city-state to attend the North East India Festival, where he was scheduled to perform the next day. A probe continues to establish the exact circumstances of the popular singer.

Over a career spanning 33 years, Zubeen recorded over 40,000 songs, enchanting audiences with his melodious voice in Assamese, Bengali, and Hindi films, as well as 40 other languages and dialects, including Bishnupriya Manipuri, Adi, Boro, Dimasa, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Nepali, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and many more.

Also Read: Zubeen Garg fans flock to Kahilipara, Guwahati as statue is revealed on his birth anniversary

Investigations into the sudden death of Zubeen took a new turn in October 2025, with a Special Investigation Team (SIT) from Assam Police reaching Singapore to work with local authorities. The two-member team, led by Special DGP (CID) Munna Prasad Gupta, had visited Singapore on October 20 and held discussions with the Singapore Police Force (SPF).

Their visit aimed to gather more details about the circumstances surrounding Zubeen’s death, which has deeply shocked fans across the Northeast and beyond.

So far, seven people, including Shyamkanu Mahanta, Siddharth Sharma (Zubeen’s manager), Shekhar Jyoti Goswami (bandmate), Amritprava Mahanta (co-singer), Sandipan Garg (Zubeen’s cousin), and his two PSOs,s Nandeswar Bora and Paresh Baishy, were arrested by the Assam SIT/CID.