Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday met Acting High Commissioner of Singapore, Alice Cheng, in New Delhiand urged her to extend full cooperation to the State police to take forward the investigations into the death of Zubeen Garg in the island nation. ‘Today in New Delhi, I met the Acting High Commissioner of Singapore, HE Alice Cheng’, Sarma posted on X. ‘In our meeting, I reiterated our request to the Singaporean authorities to extend their fullest cooperation to Assam Police, so we can realise our efforts to ensure #JusticeForZubeen-Garg’, Sarma said.

Chief Minister said that he State Government has been ‘assured of all possible support in this matter’. Sarma was also met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to New Delhi. He also met Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Briefing media in Delhi, the CM had earlier said that investigators of Zubeen Garg’s death case have found a “definite angle” after they received the viscera report on October 10. Meanwhile, the Singapore authorities have sent an email through the Indian High Commission seeking information on the Assam police officials and their agenda to visit the island nation in connection with the singer’s death, Special Director General of Police Munna Prasad Gupta said on Wednesday.

‘We have already replied to the mail and this is a very positive development,’, Gupta told reporters in Guwahati. The Singapore authorities have also received the request for the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to be invoked on September 30, he said. ‘We hope that very soon we will get the green signal to go to Singapore to take forward our work related to the investigations there’, Gupta said. The investigations into the death of the singer are progressing well in the State, he said. Zubeen Garg died in Singapore while swimming in the sea on September 19.

Three more members of the Assamese community in Singapore, who were with Garg during his last moments, appeared on Wednesday before the SIT probing into his death. Out of the 11 persons from Singapore summoned to appear before the SIT, 10 have appeared so far, while one person who is a Singapore citizen is yet to come.

The Assam Government had constituted a 10-member SIT to investigate the singer’s death in Singapore due to drowning in the sea on September 19.

Earlier in the morning, Assam Police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse an agitated mob that hurled stones at vehicles carrying five accused arrested as they were being brought to Baksa Central Jail, police said. A few people, including a policewoman, were injured and glass panes of vehicles were smashed, while some journalists covering the protests were also hit by stones, a senior officer said.

A large number of protesters gathered outside the prison in Mussalpur area, and as the convoy of vehicles carrying the accused for being lodged in the prison arrived, they started pelting the vehicles with stones, he said.

Some even demanded that the accused be handed over to the public to ensure “justice for Zubeen”.

Although the convoy managed to enter the jail premises, the protesters scuffled with the policemen deployed at the gates as they attempted to breach the cordon, the officer said. Despite the requests of the policemen to the protesters to move back, they kept pressing forward, following which the law enforcers resorted to lathi-charge to control the situation, he said. Tension still prevailed in the area as the mob moved back but was yet to leave the area, the officer said.

Earlier in the day, North East India Festival (NEIF) chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta, the singer’s manager Siddhartha Sharma, his cousin and police officer Sandipan Garg and his personal security officers Nandeswar Bora and Prabin Baishya were remanded to judicial custody by the Kamrup Chief Judicial Magistrate after their police remand ended. The court, expressing concern for their safety, also ruled that they should be sent to a jail where there were less prisoners. Accordingly, the authorities decided to shift all five to Baksa Jail at Mussalpur, which was inaugurated two months ago and there are still no prisoners there, an official said.