Goa Police register murder case in Sonali Phogat death, post mortem finds ‘many blunt injuries’

Phogat’s brother Rinku Dhaka had filed a complaint on Wednesday accusing her personal assistant Sudhir Sangwan and his aide Sukhvinder of killing Phogat. The two are now suspects in the case and have been detained by Goa Police, Bishnoi added.

Meanwhile, Phogat’s family, which had refused consent for a post-mortem to be conducted on her body, agreed to proceed with it at the Goa Medical College and Hospital in Bambolim on Thursday.

In the post-mortem report, doctors from GMCH reserved the cause of death pending chemical analysis, histopathology and serological reports. The report, however, stated that “there are multiple blunt force injuries on the body”. It added that the manner of death “is for the investigation officer to ascertain”.

Meanwhile, Phogat’s family members were set to leave Goa with her mortal remains on Thursday evening. Her nephew Monindar Phogat said, “We won’t be redoing the post mortem. We only wanted that an FIR be registered and it has been registered. We are now taking a flight back home with the (Phogat’s) body.

On Tuesday, the Goa Police had registered an unnatural death report after the 42-year-old’s death was reported by the St Anthony’s Hospital in Anjuna. She was taken to the hospital after she complained of uneasiness.

Phogat’s family members, including her brother Dhaka, her brother-in-law Aman Punia and her nephew Monindar Phogat, arrived in Goa on Tuesday evening. They submitted a written complaint to the Anjuna Police Station on Wednesday, accusing Sangwan and Sukhvinder of killing her. The four-page complaint signed by Dhaka stated that the duo “had committed Phogat’s murder to usurp her property and it was a political conspiracy”.

The complaint also stated that over three months ago, Phogat had told her family members that often after dinner, she felt tension in her limbs and found it difficult to move. “Her PA had removed the cook from his job and said that he would handle the food requirements,” said Dhaka on Wednesday. He alleged that this was a “pre-planned murder” and said that Phogat had informed her family about her visit to Chandigarh from her hometown Hisar but the visit to Goa was not part of the plan.

Dhaka had said on Tuesday that Phogat had learnt that Sangwan was behind the theft of over Rs 40 lakh from her house in Hisar last year and she was set to return home and file a complaint against him. “There was also a property angle to this,” Dhaka said. “When we asked Sangwan for the key to her house in Hisar, he said that it is in a car and he will give it to us when he returns. She had another flat in Gurugram and when he asked him to give us the key to that, he said that flat was his,” Dhaka had alleged.