On Thursday, the Goa Police arrested two persons and charged them with murder in connection to this case. The two, Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Wasi, are said to be associates of Phogat, who accompanied her when she arrived in Goa on August 22. An FIR had been registered under Section 302 (murder) based on the complain filed by Phogat’s brother Rinku Dhaka. The came after the revealing of the post-mortem report. Initially, her death was suspected to be a heart attack. However, it was later found that the 42-yr-old leader had suffered multiple blunt-force injuries.
The family alleged that the two arrested had apparently bought Sonali to go on the pretext of a film shoot. “Sudhir Sagwan (PA of Phogat) told us that film shooting was there on August 24. But hotel rooms were booked only for two days, on August 22 and 23. There was no film shoot. It was false. We didn’t see any actor or film shoot here,” Rinku Dhaka, the brother of Sonali Phogat, said. Her brother added that 3 years earlier, one of her aides had sexually assaulted her after spiking her food and later blackmailed her. The two arrested convicts have now been sent to 10 days Police custody.
The latest update, in this case, is that a Drugs Case has also been registered by the Goa Police and that two other people have been arrested in connection with the death of the politician. The latest arrests include Edwin Nunes, owner of restaurant Curlie’s where Phogat was seen partying the night before her death, and a drug dealer identified as Dattaprasad Gaonkar. Both have been named as accused in the drug case. According to a few reports, Sukhwinder and Sangwan have already “confessed” to the police that they had procured drugs from Gaonkar.
The police have so far interrogated more than 25 people, including the staff at the restaurant, the resort where Phogat was staying, the hospital where she was declared brought dead, and her driver. Phogat was at the famous restaurant-cum-nightclub on Anjuna beach on Monday where she was forcibly made to drink “some substance” mixed in water by Sangwan and Singh, the police said yesterday citing security camera footage and alleged confessions. The investigation is ongoing in Goa.
Sonali Phogat was an Indian actress and Politician. She was the National Vice President of BJP’s National Mahila Morcha. She was married to Sanjay Phogat who was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a farmhouse in Hisar in 2016. She is now survived by her daughter Yashodhara Phogat. Sonali debuted in the Television field as an anchor for a Hariyanvi show on Doordarshan. In 2020, she entered the 14th season of Bigg Boss as a wildcard contestant. She joined BJP in 2008 and was subsequently made the National Vice President of BJP’s National Mahila Morcha. In 2019, she contested in the Haryana Assembly elections from the Adampur constituency. However, she lost to her opponent Kuldeep Bishnoi.
