Four accused moves bail pleas a day after court frames charges

Guwahati: A day after the fast track court frames charges against all the seven accused in Zubeen Garg murder case, four of them—co-singer Amritprabha Mahanta, cousin Sandipon Garg and personal security officers Nandeswar Bora and Paresh Baishya filed bail petitions before the court on Wednesday.Assistant Public Prosecutor P Dutta prayed for some time to submit comments on the bail petitions filed by the accused. The fast track court Judge Sharmila Bhuyan fixed May 29 for hearing of the bail petitions.Earlier, the fast track court had rejected the bail petitions of two other accused Shyamkanu Mahanta and Sidharth Shrama.Shaymkanu Mahanta, the organiser of the North East India Festival in Singapore, moved the bail plea before the fast track court on April 10. However, after thorough hearing, Judge Sharmila Bhuyan rejected his bail plea on April 30 citing “risk of fleeing”.Following this, Shyamkanu moved the Gauhati High Court challenging the rejection of his bail plea. However, the high court judge Justice Parthivjyoti Saikia on May 13 recused himself from the plea and directed the registry to list it before an appropriate bench.Following this, the court of Justice Mitali Thakuria heard the bail plea of Shyamkanu and after the end of the arguments on May 25, the court reserved the verdict on the petition till May 29.The fast track court, set up for speedy trial of singer Zubeen Garg death case, on May 5 rejected the bail to Siddharth Sharma, one of the seven accused, citing “possibilities of influencing witnesses, hampering of further progress of the case and high possibilities of flying away” if released on bail.Siddharth was the manager of the singer and was on the yacht along with others, except Shyamkanu, at the time of Zubeen’s death while swimming in the sea on September 19 last year in Singapore, where the singer had gone to attend the fourth edition of the North East India Festival and perform there.Shyamkanu, Siddharth, Sandipon, Nareswar Bora and Paresh Baishya have been lodged in the district jail in lower Assam’s Baksa district since October 15 while Zubeen’s bandmate, Shekharjyoti Goswami and Amritprabha Mahanta have been lodged in the sub-jail at Haflong in Assam’s hilly district of Dima Hasao.