CBI takes over Phogat death case

A murder case was filed by the Goa police after the post-mortem report suggested “blunt force injury” on her body.

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday took over probe into the death of Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sonali Phogat, people familiar with the development said.

Sonali Phogat was found dead in Goa last month (ANI)

The central agency has re-registered the first information report (FIR) of the Goa police, days 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.

“CBI will take help of Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) experts to ascertain the cause of death and also re-create the crime scene in couple of days,” said an officer, requesting anonymity.

Actor-politician Phogat from Hisar was found dead in Goa last month. Initially, heart attack was said to be the cause of the death but her family alleged foul play. Later, probe linked to death due to drug overdose was launched.

A murder case was filed by the Goa police after the post-mortem report suggested “blunt force injury” on her body. The police had also said that Phogat was “forcibly drugged by her two associates”.

So far, five people have been arrested in the case including her personal assistant Sudhir Sangwan and his associate Sukhwinder Singh. Besides, Edwin Nunes, owner of Curlies restaurant in Goa and two others — Dattaprasad Gaonkar and Ramdas Mandrekar — were also arrested in the case.

Police had said Sangwan and Singh allegedly mixed some “obnoxious substance” in water and forced Phogat to drink it.

Phogat was administered methamphetamine, and some left-over drug was recovered from the restaurant’s washroom, deputy superintendent of police Jivba Dalvi had said.