Two more arrested in Sonali Phogat murder case

Two more persons have been arrested in connection with the murder of actor-turned-politician Sonali Phogat in Goa, police said on Saturday.

Goa police said they have arrested the owner of Curlies restaurant on Anjuna beach,  Edward Nunes, and a suspected drug peddler Dattprashad Gaonkar taking the total arrests in the case to four. Gaonkar had allegedly supplied drugs to Sukhwinder Singh.

“Statements of more than 25 people have been recorded so far in the case. These include the staff of Curlies Restaurant and others. The owner of the restaurant is being questioned,” police officials said.

Sonali Phogat, 42, was declared dead at the St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa on August 23. A post-mortem report revealed blunt force injury on her body, following which the Goa Police registered a murder case.

“On the basis of CCTV footage, it was seen that the accused Sudhir Sangwan and his associate Sukhwinder Singh were partying with the deceased at a club. A video establishes that one of them forcefully made the victim consume a substance,” Inspector General of Police Omvir Singh Bishnoi said.

The accused Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Singh had travelled to Goa along with Phogat on August 22.

Her brother, Rinku Dhaka had earlier filed a complaint alleging that Phogat was murdered by Sudhir Sangwan, her personal trainer along with Sukhwinder Singh who intended “to take over her properties and financial assets to finish her political career.”

“When confronted, Sukhwinder and Sudhir confessed that they intentionally mixed an obnoxious chemical into a liquid and made the victim drink it,” IGP Omvir Singh Bishnoi said.

The actor, who rose to fame with her TikTok videos, contested the 2019 Haryana election as a BJP candidate but lost to then Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi (he has since joined the BJP). She also appeared in the reality show Bigg Boss in 2020.