Sonali Phogat murder case: CBI team visits Goa hotel, gathers clues
The CBI officials remained tight lipped about the findings and offered no comments to the media after their visit to the Grand Leoney Resort where BJP leader Sonali Phogat stayed
: A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday visited the resort at Anjuna beach in North Goa where BJP leader Sonali Phogat stayed along with her PA Sudhir Sangwan and his aide Sukhwinder Singh in connection with the probe into her death and gathered clues.
However, the CBI officials remained tight lipped about the findings and offered no comments to the media after their visit to the Grand Leoney Resort.
This comes a day after the four-member CBI team arrived in Goa and formally took over the case from the Goa police.
“We have received intimation from the CBI to hand over the case and we have handed over the case. All the case files, records have been handed over,” North Goa superintendent of police Shobit Saksena, said.
The central agency has re-registered the first information report (FIR) of the Goa police after the Union home ministry referred the matter to it on Monday. Phogat’s family has been demanding a CBI probe in the mysterious death of the social media influencer.
The CBI is yet to take the custody of the accused or interrogate them in the case.
The Goa police have so far arrested five people, including Sangwan and Singh, who have been charged with murder in the case and accused of forcibly administering recreational drug methamphetamine to her while partying at the Curlies restaurant on the night she died.
Three others arrested in the case include Edwin Nunes, the owner of the Curlies nightclub where she spent her final hours, Dattaprasad Gaonkar, a roomboy at the Grand Leoney Resort accused of supplying drug to Sangwan and Singh, and Rama Mandrekar, from whom Gaonkar procured the drug.
A major portion of the Curlies beach shack and night club has been demolished following orders of the National Green Tribunal for violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification. However, the Supreme Court has adjourned till September 26 Curlies restaurant’s plea against the NGT order and extended its interim order on stay against the demolition till the next date of hearing.
The BJP leader, who was from Hisar in Haryana, was brought dead to the St Anthony’s Hospital at Anjuna in the wee hours of August 23. Sangwan and Singh were arrested the following day and have now been sent to judicial custody after spending 14 days in police custody.
