Festival organiser, Zubeen Garg’s manager arrested in Delhi

Delhi: North East India Festival (NEIF) chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and Zubeen Garg’s manager Siddhartha Sharma have been arrested in connection with the singer’s death in Singapore, police said on Wednesday.

Mahanta was arrested on his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi from Singapore while Sharma was arrested from an apartment in Gurugram.

The duo was brought to Guwahati early on Wednesday morning, a senior police official told PTI.

Meanwhile, Zubeen’s wife Garima Saikia Garg, who is in Jorhat for the 13th day rituals of the deceased singer, told reporters that she was satisfied that the duo have been brought to Assam as ”we are all waiting to know what happened to him in his last moments”.

Garima said she has full faith in the investigating team and hoped that now they will know soon what exactly happened in Singapore.

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The Assam government had constituted a 10-member SIT, led by Special DGP M P Gupta, to investigate the singer’s death in Singapore due to drowning in the sea on September 19.

The SIT issued notices to several people, including Mahanta, Sharma and members of Singapore Assam Association and those who had gone to Singapore for the festival to appear before it and record their statements.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said earlier that a ‘lookout notice’ through the Interpol had been issued against Mahanta and Sharma, asking them to appear before the CID by October 6.

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Boating relaunch at Purana Qila draws huge crowds

Boating at Delhi’s 16th-century Purana Qila has made a comeback after nearly a decade, and the response has been overwhelming. The facility, revived by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and managed by the Sabhyata Foundation of the Dalmia group, has already tripled footfall at the monument, officials said. “Due to the closure of the zoo, footfall increased. Every day, 2,500–3,000 people visit. Before the zoo closure, we would get around 800–1,200 or sometimes 1,500 on weekends. Now it touches 2,500 or around 3,000 on weekends,” said an ASI official.