More than ten days after singer Zubeen Garg drowned to death during a yacht trip in Singapore, the Assam Police arrested his manager Siddhartha Sharma and North East India Festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta on Wednesday, reported The Indian Express.

Garg, a popular Assamese singer, died on September 19, a day before he was scheduled to perform at the festival. The event had been organised by the government of India and the Indian Embassy in Singapore, with support from the Assam Association and the North East India Association in that country.

Mahanta was arrested upon his arrival at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport from Singapore, according to The Hindu. Sharma was arrested from an apartment in Haryana’s Gurugram.

They have been remanded to 14 days’ police custody by the Kamrup (Metro) chief judicial magistrate.

A death certificate issued by the Singaporean authorities on September 20 stated the cause of Garg’s death as drowning. He was cremated near Guwahati with state honours and a 21-gun salute on September 23.

After Garg’s death, more than 50 first information reports were filed against Mahanta and Sharma.

The state police had formed a Special Investigation Team to investigate the case lodged by its Criminal Investigation Department against them under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and causing death by negligence.

The CID had given time to Mahanta and Sharma to appear before it by October 6.

Lookout notices were also issued against them on September 27, The Hindu reported.

Both Mahanta and Sharma had earlier issued statements on social media saying that they were avoiding returning to Assam out of concern for their safety.

Mahanta and his team had also stated that they had “no prior knowledge” of Garg taking the yacht trip.

“Zubeen had told the festival organising team that he wanted to go to Singapore and we arranged for his stay at a hotel,” Mahanta told PTI. “He had not come for the festival alone but had also made his own plans with members of the Assam Association in Singapore.”

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that Mahanta’s bank accounts were frozen and that a separate investigation was underway into his alleged involvement in organised financial crimes, The Hindu reported.

On Tuesday, Sarma stated that the Centre had written to the Singapore government, seeking cooperation in the probe into Garg’s death under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the two countries.

The treaty allows both countries to share evidence, documents and investigative support in criminal cases.

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