Popular singer Zubeen Garg had gone on a yacht trip in Singapore with a few members of the local Assamese community when he died in an accident, according to the chief organiser of the North East India Festival.
The three-day festival, which was scheduled to begin from Friday, was cancelled following the tragedy.
Zubeen had arrived in Singapore on Wednesday and was ''scheduled to be with us at the festival tomorrow, meeting and interacting with people,'' chief organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta told PTI.
Earlier in the day, the entire North East India Festival (NEIF) team was engaged in a business meeting with senior Singaporean industrialists and policymakers at a hotel to facilitate investments in Northeast India, he said.
''During the meeting, we received a call from Zubeen’s manager informing us that he had met with an accident and had been rushed to Singapore General Hospital,” Mahanta said.
"We later learned that a few members of the local Assamese community had taken him on a yacht visit, of which we had no prior knowledge.”
He said that Zubeen was taken to a hospital where he passed away.
Mahanta has since been working closely with the Indian High Commission to complete the required procedures for the singer’s body to be brought back home.
''This is a monumental loss, and words cannot express the depth of our grief. In light of this tragedy, we are cancelling the event,” Mahanta said.
Tributes have been pouring in from fans, colleagues as well as leading politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of Opposition the the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
All of them have expressed their shock and grief over the death of the singer, best known for his song Ya Ali from Gangster.