E-Paper
Goa CM says ready to hand over Sonali Phogat death case to CBI
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in a telephone conversation with Goa CM Pramod Sawant on Sunday conveyed Sonali Phogat’s family’s demand for a CBI probe into her death
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday expressed his willingness to hand over the probe into the death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and actor Sonali Phogat to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar in a telephone conversation conveyed her family’s demand for the same.
Speaking to reporters in Panaji, Sawant maintained that the Goa police have done a thorough investigation so far and said that Khattar in his conversation mentioned Phogat’s family’s demand for a CBI probe.
“If necessary we will hand over the case to CBI after completion of all formalities. But the Goa police have done a thorough investigation so far,” Sawant said.
The Goa police on Sunday morning arrested one Ramdas “Rama” Mandrekar, an alleged peddler, taking the total number of arrests in the case to five.
Also Read | New video shows BJP’s Sonali Phogat, who died in Goa, being forced to drink
Manderkar has been accused of supplying MDMA drug to Dattaprasad Gaonkar, the room boy at the Grand Leoney Resort, where Phogat and her team were staying. Gaonkar confessed to the police that the drug was supplied by Mandrekar.
To be sure, a confession or disclosure statement of any person made before a police officer is not admissible as evidence before a court unless it is backed by other evidence. Only a confession before a judge is admissible as evidence against an accused.
Phogat, a former TikTok star and contestant on the reality show Big Boss, was brought dead to the St Anthony Hospital in Anjuna in north Goa district on August 23 morning, a day after her arrival in the coastal state. She and her team were in Goa to reportedly produce a video and were to be joined by another group from Mumbai. It was earlier suspected that she died of a heart attack. However, on Thursday, a murder case was registered based on the complaint lodged by Phogat’s brother.
The police reviewed the security camera footage taken from the Curlies night club and they saw Phogat’s manager Sudhir Sangwan and his associate Sukhwinder Singh forcibly administering an “obnoxious chemical” that was mixed in a drink to her, leading to the arrest of the duo.
While Sangwan and Singh have been charged with murder, poisoning and sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Edwin Nunes, the owner of Curlies’ nightclub where Phogat spent her final hours, Gaonkar and Mandrekar have been charged with sections under the NDPS Act.
Meanwhile, Nue who was arrested by the police on Saturday, has moved a bail application that is expected to come up for hearing later today.
