Sonali Phogat: ‘Will send report to Haryana CM,’ says Sawant amid CBI probe call
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said that the state government will share a detailed report of the investigation into the death of Sonali Phogat with Haryana chief minister ML Khattar and the Haryana director general of police.
However, if they still insist on a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Goa will “think about it”, Sawant told reporters in Panaji while commending Goa Police for their investigation in the case so far.
“Day before yesterday, the Haryana CM spoke to me and sought an update on the Sonali Phogat case. I briefed him that the Goa Police have done a very good job so far and that five people have been arrested. No one involved in this case will be spared. Yet if they continue to say that they want a CBI probe, we will think about it,” Sawant said.
“A detailed report on the investigation done so far will be sent to the chief minister of Haryana and the DGP,” he said.
The Goa Police has so far arrested five people, including Sudhir Sangwan, Phogat’s manager Sukhwinder Singh and his associate, who have been charged with murdering the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. They are also accused of forcibly administering banned recreational drug methamphetamine to her on the night she died.
Three others who have been arrested are – Edwin Nunes, the owner of the Curlies night club where she spent her final hours, Dattaprasad Gaonkar, a room boy at the Grand Leoney Resort where Phogat and her team were staying and accused of supplying drug to Sangwan and Singh, and Rama Mandrekar, who Gaonkar procured the drug from.
Nunes and Gaonkar have filed for bail before the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court.
Police said they began an investigation into the case as an unnatural death immediately after it was initially reported as a heart attack, after her brother filed a complaint alleging that it was a murder.
Subsequently, Sangwan and Singh were arrested and CCTV footage showed them making her drink something allegedly spiked with methamphetamine.
