‘Police raj’: In aftermath of Zubeen Garg death, a spate of arrests, detentions of protesting fans

On October 7, a team of police officials in plain clothes arrived at the house of Ajit Bhuyan, a 29-year-old taxi driver in Assam's Kamrup district.

He was told by the police that he was being detained because he had allegedly attacked a police vehicle near the Guwahati airport a fortnight before.

That day, on September 21, Bhuyan, a resident of Bamundi Bishnupur village, was among thousands of fans of singer Zubeen Garg who had thronged the airport, as they waited for his body to arrive from Singapore.

Garg, who had travelled to Singapore to perform at a festival, drowned on September 19 while swimming in the sea near an island.

Grieving fans had taken their anger out on a police vehicle stationed near the entrance to the airport, breaking its windshield.

Bhuyan denied he was involved in the attack on the vehicle. Nevertheless, he was taken to a nearby police station and detained there for the night. The next day, he was taken to Azara police station, 35 km away, near the Guwahati airport.

At the Azara police station, Bhuyan alleged he was mercilessly beaten up by the police for two days.

“I was told that if I don't blame Victor Das for instigating me into violence, I will not be spared,” Bhuyan said.

Victor Das, a Zubeen fan who ran a coaching institute in Guwahati, had been arrested on September 25, after clashes broke out between the police and protesting fans outside the residence of Garg's manager.

Das was accused of assaulting the police, instigating violence through a Facebook livestream and leading crowds in the street of Guwahati seeking justice for Zubeen Garg.

Bhuyan said he had never met Das, but was forced to implicate him. “I did not have any other option because of the beatings,” he said.

On October 9, Bhuyan and five others named in the first information report were granted bail by a local court.

During the hearing, Judge P Mohan noted that there were “injuries on Bhuyan's whole body” and asked the chairman of the State Police Accountability Commission to initiate an inquiry.

“It's been five days since my arrest, but I am still unable to walk,” Bhuyan told Scroll on October 12.

For close to a month, Assam has been roiled by protests in the aftermath of Zubeen Garg's sudden death in Singapore.

The Singapore Police ruled out foul play citing Garg's first autopsy report, but back home allegations of a conspiracy behind his death have taken wing.

Public anger has grown, leading to protests in Guwahati and elsewhere as well as intense social media discussions. In response, the Assam police has cracked down.

Since September 18, four people have been arrested and five detained for taking part in or advocating protests or for social media posts seeking justice for Zubeen Garg. In one case, the police invoked the stringent National Security Act.

The police called the demands made by the fans as “provocative” and meant to “incite violence”, according to three FIRs seen by Scroll.

At least four people are still in jail, two of whom two were arrested for social media posts.

While Victor Das was granted bail a day after his arrest, the police took him into custody from the Guwahati court premises and invoked the National Security Act against him. Das had been arrested in 2022 for tweeting against the alleged corruption in recruitments.

Similarly, musician and Congress leader Ajay Phukan was first arrested along with Das for allegedly assaulting the police outside Garg's manager's house.

Phukan got bail but was re-arrested from the court premises on September 26. He was accused, like Bhuyan, of attacking the police vehicle near the airport.

Before the police took him away, Phukan claimed that “false cases” were slapped on him but that would not deter him from seeking justice for Zubeen Garg. “We need justice and for that the public must rise,” he said.

Phukan was granted bail by the Gauhati High Court on Thursday, three weeks after his arrest.

The Assam police's heavy-handedness has come in for criticism. “They are implementing police raj instead of following the rule of law,” alleged Dipjyoti Gogoi, a businessman from Sivasagar district who had also been detained, in his case for sharing Facebook posts.

A criminal lawyer from Guwahati said, “In the last few years, this has become the norm – slight protests are followed by severe police action."

Scroll texted the director-general of Assam police, asking why fans were arrested for social media posts and seeking response to allegations that the police tortured Bhuyan. The story will be updated if there is a response.

On September 28, Parvez Maruf, a Guwahati resident, was arrested and accused of “trying to overthrow the government through a Facebook post”.

The arrest was made on the basis of a general first information report filed by a sub-inspector of the Guwahati cyber police station. The FIR did not name anyone but it was against alleged “miscreants” who had “disturbed public peace in the name of” Zubeen Garg “to create social unrest in the entire state of Assam in general and in Guwahati in particular”.

The FIR alleged that Maruf's Facebook post, which said “Gen Z ulai aahibo lagibo” – “Gen Z will have to come out” – was an attempt to “provoke people to establish anarchy and to create a volatile situation”.

The “arrested accused person is trying to overthrow the government by creating a situation like neighbouring countries which may affect the unity, sovereignty and integrity of India,” it said.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, too, has cautioned residents of the state not to incite violence and turn the state “into Nepal”, a reference to the recent “Gen Z” protests that deposed the Nepal government.

However, a reading of Maruf's Facebook post shows he had not called for violence. “If the new generation does not come out democratically by keeping their faith in the judicial system, then I don't think our Zubeen da would get justice,” it said.

“My brother asked people to protest democratically,” Injamam Ul Hoque, Maruf's younger brother, told Scroll. “His post does not constitute any incitement to violence, anarchy, or any act endangering India's sovereignty or unity. Asking for democratic protest is not a crime.”

The police in Eastern Assam's Golaghat district also arrested 31-year-old Mukibur Rahman, who runs a furniture business in Merapani district, on September 28 for a Facebook video where he urged people to hit the streets of Guwahati to protest and demand justice.

Maruf was granted bail by the Gauhati High Court on October 16, though he was still not out of jail at the time of publication. Rahman is still in jail.

The Assam police appear to follow a familiar playbook in going after social media posts involving Zubeen Garg. Even after the Pahalgam terror attack, as Scroll had reported, the police had targeted several Muslim men for social media posts.

Abdur Rashid Shaikh, a social media influencer from Dhubri district was picked up from his home at midnight on October 4, and taken to the Chapar police station.

He was made to delete a post related to Zubeen's death, which had gathered 1.5 million views and 42,000 likes. He was also forced to apologise on social media for his “provocative post”.

“I had shared a small clip of Victor Das's live video on Facebook in which he had said it won't take much time for Assam to become like Nepal if Zubeen da doesn't get justice,” Shaikh told Scroll. “ The police threatened me and asked me to delete the post and ordered me to give a clarification on Facebook.”

Dipjyoti Gogoi, the businessman from Sivasagar district in Upper Assam, said the police were trying to instill fear among people so that they do not protest against the delay in the probe into Garg's death.

Gogoi was detained at Demow police station on October 5 for more than 23 hours after he shared posts demanding justice. He had also shared photos of Shyamkanu Mahanta, the organiser of the North East India Festival, with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and senior police officials.

Mahanta was arrested on October 1 in connection with the singer's death and booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita involving culpable homicide not amounting to murder, criminal conspiracy and causing death by negligence. Murder charges were added later.

“The post asked whether his (Shyamkanu) relationship with such powerful people will hamper in getting justice for Zubeen da,” Gogoi told Scroll. “The captions were written by others and I had shared it. I was let go after they forced me to delete the photos.”

No formal charges were brought against Gogoi. “How can they detain someone without any case?” he asked.

Bhuyan, the taxi driver from Kamrup, also saw a design behind the police action. He said that the brutal assault on him and police crackdown was a “strategy of the government” so that people do not take to the streets.

Source: Scroll
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