Guwahati: A fast-track court hearing the Zubeen Garg death case on Thursday rejected the bail petition of Shyamkanu Mahanta, one of seven accused, citing a “risk of fleeing”.After hearing both sides, fast-track court judge Sharmila Bhuyan denied bail to Mahanta, organiser of the fourth edition of the North East India Festival in Singapore.Zubeen died in Singapore on Sept 19 last year while swimming in the sea. The 52-year-old singer had travelled to the island nation to perform at the festival.In the order, Bhuyan said Mahanta did not appear before or contact Assam Police soon after the death and left Singapore for Malaysia with his wife, returning to India only after a notice was issued and Interpol was alerted. The judge said this “pointed he fled away from the place of occurrence country immediately after the incident and there appears every possibilities of his again fly away if granted bail.”The court also noted that Mahanta deleted messages, photographs, video and audio from his mobile handset, later recovered by forensic experts. The order said “if accused Mahanta is released on bail there is possibilities of influencing the witnesses and hampering of the further progress of the case.”“Therefore, after going through the entire material on record which are collected by the investigating agency and conduct of the accused immediately after the incident and considering the entire facts and circumstances right from the beginning of the case till end leading to the death of the late singer, post conduct of Mahanta which he did, coupled with the decision of the apex court, I am of the considered opinion that this is not a fit case to grant bail and accordingly bail prayer of the accused Mahanta is rejected and bail petition is dismissed,” the judge stated.Public prosecutor Z Kamar said, “The court observed that Mahanta’s post-incident conduct was bad. Instead of helping Zubeen Garg, he had left for Malaysia, and was called back with a lookout notice. So, there is a risk of fleeing if he is granted bail.”Mahanta applied for bail on April 10.CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had told the assembly in Nov last year that Zubeen’s death was a case of “plain and simple murder”.A special investigation team of Assam Police CID probed the death and filed a chargesheet in Dec, naming seven accused. Four face murder charges.Mahanta, the singer’s manager Siddharth Sharma, band members Shekhar Jyoti Goswami and Amrit Prabha Mahanta, his cousin and Assam Police DSP Sandipan Garg, and PSOs Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya are in jail in the case.
