Singapore authorities have launched a Coroner's Inquiry into the singer Zubeen Garg’s death case, The Indian Express has learnt exclusively. Zubeen died under mysterious circumstances during a yacht excursion on September 19. The inquiry follows amid ongoing questions surrounding the untimely death of the 52-year-old megastar.
The Indian Express raised few queries to the authorities in Singapore regarding their findings on the nature of Zubeen Garg’s death- an issue that sparked widespread speculation in Assam, Dr Shijia Chan, the consultant forensic pathologist who issued Garg's death certificate, told The Indian Express, " The case has been made a coroner’s case and is undergoing police investigations in Singapore."
What is a coroner's inquiry?
The Attorney General’s Chamber, Singapore, noted, “A Coroner’s Inquiry (‘CI’) is an inquiry conducted by a Coroner into the circumstances leading to a death.” It further states, “A CI is a fact-finding and not a fault-finding process, the purpose of which is for the Coroner to ascertain (a) the identity of the deceased, and (b) how, when and where the deceased came by his death,” per the Indian Express.
These inquiries are required by Singapore's Coroners Act for deaths resulting from or suspected of resulting from unlawful acts, deaths whose causes are unknown, or deaths under suspicious conditions. The coroner is a judicial officer who oversees the inquiry, while the Act also mandates that the police carry out an investigation and submit their findings to the coroner.
The Act states, “A Coroner at an inquiry is not to frame a finding in such a way as to determine any question of criminal, civil or disciplinary liability but is not inhibited in the discharge of his or her functions by any likelihood of liability being inferred from facts that the coroner determines or recommendations that the coroner makes.”
Parallel investigation in Assam
Assam police are still investigating Garg's death on murder charges, criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not being murder, and causing death by negligence. Seven have been arrested thus far. On Friday, two of Garg's personal security officers (PSOs), Nandeswar Bora and Paresh Baishya, were arrested and remanded to five-day police custody by a local court.
These PSOs, who had been protecting Garg since 2013 after a death threat issued by ULFA over his Bihu shows, were in the limelight after the SIT found abnormally high financial transactions - Rs 70 lakh in one account and Rs 40 lakh in another. Garg's wife, Garima Saikia Garg, confirmed that she was aware that her husband had been providing monetary help to the PSOs for charity work, but had no idea of the amounts. The two PSOs did not join Garg on his last visit to Singapore, SIT head M P Gupta validated to The Indian Express.
Waiting for clarity
The Singapore coroner's investigation and the concurrent Special Inquiry Team (SIT) inquiry in Assam are ongoing as both countries wait for clarity on the sudden demise of one of India's most beloved cultural figures.
Garg, who was in Singapore as the cultural brand ambassador of the North-East India Festival on September 20–21, was said to have lost consciousness while swimming with members of the Assam Association Singapore. He was sent to Singapore General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Singapore's Health Sciences Authority issued a death certificate listing the cause of death as "drowning."
