Singer Zubeen Garg was “severely intoxicated” and had refused to wear a life jacket when he drowned while swimming in September, The Straits Times quoted the Singapore Police as having told a court on Wednesday.

Assistant Superintendent of Police David Lim of the Singapore Police Coast Guard made the statement while testifying at a Coroner’s Inquiry, which is a fact-finding process in the Southeast Asian country to establish the causes and circumstances of a person’s death.

Garg, a renowned Assamese singer, died on September 19 during a yacht trip in Singapore, a day before he was scheduled to perform at the North East India Festival there.

A death certificate issued by the authorities in Singapore on September 20 stated the cause of Garg’s death as drowning.

On Wednesday, Lim said that witnesses had noted that Garg did not have any suicidal tendencies and was not subjected to duress or coercion before his death, The Straits Times reported.

“He did not wear a life jacket, despite repeated reminders by the yacht captain to wear one,” the Singaporean newspaper quoted Lim as saying.

The police officer said that Garg began swimming away from the yacht without a life jacket, even as others on board tried to convince him to return.

“Suddenly, the deceased became motionless and was floating face down,” Lim was quoted as testifying.

The witnesses also saw foaming at his mouth, Lim added.

Garg was pulled back onto the yacht, where cardiopulmonary resuscitation was administered and an emergency call was made at 3.36 pm. Lim said that a Police Coast Guard vessel arrived at the scene in less than 10 minutes, The Straits Times reported.

He was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5.13 pm.

An autopsy found 333 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood in Garg’s body, which could have affected his coordination, The Straits Times reported. Singapore’s drink-driving limit is 80 mg per 100 ml of blood. The quantity is 30 mg per 100 ml of blood in India.

The videos recorded on witnesses’ mobile phones were also played in court, showing Garg removing his life jacket, the newspaper reported.

On December 19, Singapore Police reiterated that they did not suspect any foul play in Garg’s death. They had made a similar statement in October.

Meanwhile, a Special Investigation Team in India filed a chargesheet in a Guwahati court on December 12, accusing four of the seven arrested persons of murder.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly claimed that Garg’s death was not accidental but was a murder.

The event where the singer was scheduled to perform had been organised by the Indian government and the Indian High Commission in Singapore, with support from the Assam Association and the North East India Association in the country.

The four persons who have been charged for murder by the SIT are Shyamkanu Mahanta, who was the organiser of the North East India Festival, Garg’s manager Siddharatha Sharma and two musicians who were with the singer on the yacht – Shekharjyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta.

Zubeen Garg’s cousin, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sandipan Garg, who had travelled with him to Singapore, has been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, while two of the singer’s personal security officers have been accused of criminal breach of trust.

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