4 min readPanajiAug 28, 2022 12:59 AM IST
First published on: Aug 27, 2022 at 11:28 AM IST
The Goa Police on Saturday arrested an alleged drug peddler and the owner of the restaurant and beach shack that Haryana BJP leader and actor Sonali Phogat had visited hours before she died. Phogat’s personal assistant Sudhir Sangvan and his aide Sukhwinder Singh have been charged with the 42-year-old actor’s murder and the police had said that they had given her an “obnoxious chemical substance” mixed in a drink.
Police officials said the drug given to Phogat had been identified as methamphetamine and was allegedly supplied by Dattaprasad Gaonkar, who worked at Hotel Grand Leony in Anjuna where Phogat was putting up with the two men now charged with her murder. Along with Gaonkar, the police also arrested Edwin Nunes, the owner of Curlies restaurant, since the drugs were allegedly found in the washroom of the restaurant. Phogat had visited the restaurant with Sangvan and Singh the night before she died on August 23. Curlies is a popular tourist draw at the Anjuna beach.
CCTV footage from the restaurant had shown Phogat being escorted to the bathroom of the restaurant by one of the men accused of committing her murder.
The investigation team consisting of Superintendent of Police Shekhar Prabhudesai, Deputy Superintendent of Police Jivba Dalvi and Police Inspector Prashal Dessai of the Anjuna Police Station was led to the drugs based on the interrogation of Sangvan. According to the police, based on Sangvan’s disclosure, “the drugs given to the deceased were seized from the washroom of the Curlies restaurant.”
Police officials said Gaonkar and Nunes had been booked under Section 22 (b) that pertains to sale, purchase, possession or transport of a psychotropic substance less than commercial but greater than small quantity, Section 29 that pertains to abetment of criminal conspiracy and Section 25 that pertains to allowing the use of premises for commission of offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. On Saturday morning, the duo was detained for questioning and later arrested.
Meanwhile, Sangvan and Singh, who were placed under arrest on Friday, were produced before a magistrate in Mapusa on Saturday afternoon and remanded in 10-day police custody. On Friday, the police said Sangvan and Singh had “forcefully” and “intentionally” given Phogat an “obnoxious chemical substance” in a drink after which she lost control on herself. Phogat was declared dead on the morning of August 23 when she was taken to the St Anthony’s Hospital in Anjuna. She had arrived in Goa on August 22.
The FIR was filed two days after her death when Phogat’s brother Rinku Dhaka filed a complaint and accused Sangvan and Singh of bringing Phogat to Goa with the intention to kill her. He said Phogat’s family was kept in the dark about her visit to Goa. The post-mortem report had “reserved” the cause of Phogat’s death pending chemical analysis, histopathology and serological reports. It had, however, stated there were “multiple blunt force injuries” on Phogat’s body.
Dhaka alleged that Sangvan wanted to kill Phogat because she had come to know that he was behind a theft of over Rs 40 lakh that took place in her Hisar home last year and he also wanted to usurp her property. Her brother-in-law Aman Punia, however, also alleged that her death was a “larger conspiracy” and Sangvan and Singh could not have been acting on their own.
Family meets Khattar, seeks CBI probe
BJP leader Sonali Phogat’s family Saturday met Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar at his residence and demanded a CBI probe into the actor’s murder. Goa police have so far arrested four people, including her PA Sudhir Sangwan, his friend Sukhwinder and two others. According to government officials, “The CM has assured the family that he had already spoken with Goa CM and will also write to the goa government seeking a CBI probe into this matter.”
(With inputs from ENS, Chandigarh)
Police officials said the drug given to Phogat had been identified as methamphetamine. (File) 
Share
