On Sonali Phogat’s murder, Goa CM Pramod Sawant okays CBI probe ‘if required’
Sonali Phogat murder case: Sawant’s statement comes a day after he received a call from Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar seeking a transfer of the case to the probe agency on request of Sonali Phogat’s family.
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said that he was willing to hand over the case involving the death of BJP leader Sonali Phogat to the CBI “if required” for further scrutiny. Sawant’s statement comes a day after he received a call from Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to transfer the case to the probe agency. “Haryana CM spoke with me and requested a thorough investigation into the case. He wants CBI to take over the case after family members met him in person and requested the same.”
“I don’t have an issue with it. After all formalities today, if required, I will give this case to CBI,” the Goa CM said, speaking to news agency ANI.
Haryana CM seeks CBI probe in Sonali Phogat murder case
On Saturday, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar assured Sonali Phogat’s family of a CBI probe into her death.
The chief minister’s office informed that they will write to the Goa government seeking a CBI probe into the death of the Haryana BJP leader after her family met with CM Khattar at his residence in this regard and sought thorough investigation into it.
Sonali Phogat was said to have died of a cardiac arrest during her trip to Goa, the doctors had revealed. However, the case got complicated after her family members accused her associates, who had accompanied her on the trip, of playing a role in her death.
Five arrests so far
Another drug peddler was arrested late Saturday in the alleged murder of Sonali Phogat, taking the total arrests in the case to five.
Police in the North Goa district of Anjuna claimed that Rama, alias Ramadas Mandrekar, supplied drugs to another peddler Dattaprasad Gaonkar, who is already in custody over suspicion of having supplied drugs to Phogat’s aides and key accused – Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Singh.
The two had allegedly spiked her drink with the drugs and have been sent to 10-day police custody over murder charges.
On Saturday, it was revealed that the 43-year-old actor-politician was given a recreational drug called methamphetamine, along with another (as yet unidentified substance) that was recovered from the washroom of Curlies restaurant in Anjuna, Goa, that Phogat and her aides visited hours before her death.
Police have also arrested Edwin Nunes – the owner of the Curlies restaurant where Phogat and her aides partied in the hours before her death.
