A year later, prayers, remembrance and a continuing legal battle mark Zubeen Garg’s legacy
Assam marks one year since the death of Zubeen Garg, the singer, composer, actor and filmmaker whose voice was inseparable from the state's cultural identity. What began as sudden, shocking news from a yacht trip off Singapore's Lazarus Island has, over twelve months, become a sprawling story spanning two nations' police forces, a Special Investigation Team, a Fast Track Court trial, and a running political dispute over whether Garg's death was an accident or a murder. This is how the case unfolded, month by month.
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Zubeen Garg, 52, passed away on September 19, 2025, after losing consciousness while swimming during a yacht outing near Lazarus Island in Singapore, where he had travelled to perform as a "cultural ambassador" at the Northeast India Festival. Singapore police said at the time that they had been called to St John's Island around 3:30 PM, where Garg was found unconscious and later pronounced dead in hospital.
His body was flown home two days later. Thousands gathered at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati on September 21 as Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Minister Pabitra Margherita received his remains, with shops and markets across Assam shutting down in collective mourning. He was cremated on September 23, 2025, at what is now known as Zubeen Kshetra in Sonapur, a site that has since become "a place of pilgrimage" for fans who visit daily with flowers, lamps and songs.
Within a month, official caution gave way to public and political impatience. On October 17, Singapore police said that the investigation could take another three months and that no foul play was suspected, while noting they had already shared a copy of the autopsy report with the Indian High Commission on request.
In Assam, however, the political temperature rose sharply. CM Sarma told the state Assembly on November 25, 2025, that Garg's death was "a simple, plain murder case," asserting that one person had killed him while others helped. This set the tone for Assam's own parallel investigation, run by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which had by then arrested seven people connected to Garg's final trip, including his manager, his bandmates and the organiser of the Singapore festival.
On December 12, 2025, Assam Police's SIT filed a 3,500-page chargesheet before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Guwahati. The SIT had questioned over 300 people, including Garg's family, friends, bandmates and members of the Assamese community in Singapore and four of the seven arrested men, including secretary Siddhartha Sharma and festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, were charged with murder, while the others faced lesser charges including culpable homicide and negligence.
The Singapore Police Force (SPF), for its part, pushed back on the murder narrative. In a statement on December 18, 2025, the SPF said it was "aware of online speculation" and of Indian media reports of murder charges, but reiterated that its own investigation, based on findings so far, did not suspect foul play. The SPF confirmed the Coroner's Inquiry was expected to be held in January and February 2026.
The Coroner's Inquiry proceeded through the first months of 2026. On March 25, 2026, Singapore's State Coroner ruled Zubeen Garg's death an accidental drowning, finding no evidence of foul play, a conclusion the SPF said was "consistent with what SPF had found through" its own investigations. The Coroner's findings, drawn from post-mortem toxicology and autopsy results, detailed that Garg had initially worn a life jacket while swimming, removed it upon returning briefly to the yacht, and then swum out a second time without one despite being offered one, before being seen to become unresponsive as he swam back.
The Singapore Coroner's finding of accidental death did not end the Assam case. The Gauhati High Court took up a fresh bail plea from accused organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta amid "conflicting Singapore and Assam probe findings," with the Assam investigation continuing to treat the case as one involving murder charges against four of the seven named accused, even as Singapore's findings pointed to accident. Justice Mitali Thakuria's bench was tasked with weighing the new submissions.
Meanwhile, the Fast Track Court trial in Guwahati moved forward on the evidentiary front. Assam's CID SIT told the court in June 2026 that it would submit video footage from Singapore relating to the incident, along with other electronic and digital evidence, as the prosecution sought to bolster its case. A separate bail application, from a former manager identified as Sarma, was also before the Gauhati High Court after a Fast Track Court had earlier rejected it.
As the anniversary approached, attention shifted from courtroom procedure to public remembrance. Garg's wife, Garima Saikia Garg, announced a three-day commemorative programme at Zubeen Kshetra from September 17 to 19, 2026. September 17 was designated "Zubeen Divas," featuring prayers, music and cultural tributes; September 19, the exact anniversary, was set to include a Bhagawat Path in the morning and a Bhaona performance in the evening, with a Bhagawat Naam Kirtan ritual on the final day intended to offer peace to Garg's soul. Assam's Cultural Affairs Minister Bimal Borah visited the family ahead of the event to coordinate state support, while plans for a permanent museum and nature trail at the site signal that Zubeen Kshetra is being developed into a lasting memorial.
One year on, the legal case remains open and contested, Singapore closed its file with a verdict of accidental drowning, while Assam's courts continue to hear a murder trial against four of seven accused. For millions of fans, though, the anniversary is less about that unresolved dispute than about a voice they are still learning to live without.