The music had barely faded when tragedy struck. On the eve of his much-anticipated performance at the North-East Festival in Singapore, Assamese icon Zubeen Garg slipped beneath the water during a swim — and never surfaced again.
The 52-year-old, revered across India’s North-East as the “voice of Assam,” died suddenly last Friday, leaving behind a grieving fan base and a storm of unanswered questions.
Within hours, whispers of conspiracy began to spread. Why did Garg, who suffered from epilepsy, enter the water that day? Who was with him in those final moments? And was his death really an accident?
The investigation has already taken a dramatic turn. Just a day after Garg’s last rites were performed, police swooped in on Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, the singer’s drummer of one year, arresting him from his home in Guwahati. Allegations suggest that it was Goswami who persuaded Garg to take the swim that proved fatal.
In response, the Assam government has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), tasked with untangling the murky circumstances behind Garg’s death. Raids have been carried out at the homes of festival promoter Shyamkanu Mohant and Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma, with investigators hinting that more arrests could follow. Even members of the Singapore-Assam Association are reportedly under the CID’s radar.
For now, theories collide. Some point to Garg’s epilepsy, which may have triggered underwater. Others, including many of his fans, suspect a darker hand at play — an orchestrated tragedy in a foreign land.
Assam’s Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has pledged to uncover the truth. “The real cause of Zubin’s death must be revealed,” he said, as the SIT digs deeper.
For millions of admirers, the mystery is unbearable. Zubin Garg was more than a musician; he was the soundtrack of a region’s soul. His sudden death has left a silence — one that can only be broken by the answers investigators now chase across two countries.