Guwahati, Oct 18: The Assam government will move the Supreme Court challenging the Gauhati High Court’s decision to grant bail to two of the seven accused in singer Zubeen Garg’s death case, officials said on Sunday.
A Special Leave Petition (SLP) would be filed as soon as the apex court reopens after the ongoing holidays, they said.
Special Director General of Police, CID, Munna Prasad Gupta, addressing a press conference here, said, “The honourable Gauhati High Court has granted bail to two accused in case no. 18/25. We have studied the orders, and after analysing those and taking legal opinion, we have decided to move the honourable Supreme Court against the bail orders.”
He, however, refused to comment on the bail orders.
“Court holidays are on. And as soon as it reopens, we will file it,” he added.
Garg’s band member and singer Amritprava Mahanta, and his cousin and suspended Assam Police DSP Sandipon Garg have obtained bail from the HC through separate orders.
Mahanta, granted bail on October 9, was released from judicial custody, while Sandipon Garg was awaiting execution of his bail order granted on October 16.
Gupta said 134 witnesses have been examined by the fast-track court hearing the death case.
“The trial of the case is progressing well. No witness has turned hostile,” he added.
State’s advocate general Devajit Saikia, in another press meet, said the lower courts had rejected the bail petitions of the accused, though the HC has granted it now.
“I have studied Mahanta’s bail order and have seen some discrepancies in it. The home department has consulted me, and I have advised them that this order is not acceptable and we should challenge it,” he said.
Accordingly, the preliminary work of filing an SLP against Mahanta’s bail order in the Supreme Court as soon as it reconvenes after the break has started, the advocate general said.
He maintained that some observations in the bail order could create problems in the trial, and the government will appeal for expunging those remarks and quashing the bail order.
“The trial is at an important stage and hearing is on a day-to-day basis. Granting bail at this stage could put us in a difficult position,” he maintained.
On Sandipon’s bail, he said the detailed order is not available yet, and if any discrepancy is observed, the state government will file an SLP before the apex court.
Saikia affirmed that the government was committed to ensuring “justice” for Garg and pointed out that the accused have been in jail for over a year now.
“Even in the most hardcore murder case, bail is given after 90 days. But our investigation findings and legal teams’ work have ensured that the accused remained incarcerated till now,” he said.
“The fast-track court has upheld all the charges brought in the charge-sheet during the charge framing stage,” he added, asserting that the probe was carried out efficiently, with the prosecution carrying it forward in the trial court.
Saikia also said others, including Garg’s family, were free to seek legal recourse against the bail orders or raise any other objections.
Morigaon-based lawyer Ratul Bora, who had filed the first police complaint following Garg’s death in Singapore, on Saturday said he would move the top court challenging the HC’s bail orders.
Garg, a celebrated singer-songwriter, died under mysterious circumstances in Singapore on September 19 last year while swimming in the sea. He was in the island country to attend the fourth edition of the North East India Festival (NEIF).
Besides Mahanta and Sandipon, NEIF chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, the singer’s manager Siddharth Sharma, band member Shekhar Jyoti Goswami, and personal security officers (PSOs) Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya are in jail as accused in the case.
The two PSOs had been granted bail in a disproportionate assets case in September, but remain in jail in connection with the singer’s death case.
A special investigation team (SIT) of the state CID probed Garg’s death after more than 60 FIRs were registered across the state.
The SIT filed its chargesheet before a local court here in December last year, naming the seven accused. Four of them are facing murder charges.
The Singapore Police carried out a separate probe and concluded that there was no evidence of foul play.
A court in Singapore had also said the popular Indian singer-songwriter was severely intoxicated and had drowned off Lazarus Island after declining to wear a life jacket.
The authorities in Assam, however, maintained that the findings of the Singapore Police probe will not impact the case here.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had, in the state assembly, said that Garg’s death was a case of “plain and simple murder”. (PTI)
