Goa Police on Thursday arrested two men in connection with the death of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sonali Phogat and charged them with murder. Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Wasi, who were said to be associates of Phogat, had been called for questioning to Anjuna police station after her family alleged foul play in her death.
Phogat (42), the BJP leader from Hisar in Haryana who had found fame on Tik Tok, was "brought dead" at the St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa on Tuesday morning. Police had said she died of a suspected heart attack, but registered a case of unnatural death.
Both Sagwan and Wasi had accompanied Phogat when she arrived in Goa on August 22.
Meanwhile, the autopsy report of Phogat indicated “multiple blunt force injuries” on her body. Dr Sunil Shrikant Chimbolkar of the Forensic Science Department at the Goa Medical College and Hospital, where the autopsy was conducted, reserved his opinion on the cause of death, pending chemical analysis.
"There are multiple blunt force injuries over the body. In view of the above, the manner of death is for the investigating officer to ascertain," the report said.
Earlier in the day, police had added Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code to the case and named Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Wasi as accused in the case.
On Wednesday, Phogat's brother Rinku Dhaka filed a formal complaint with the Goa Police, claiming his sister was murdered by two of her associates.
Dhaka said Phogat had no plan to visit Goa and that she was brought to the state as part of a pre-planned conspiracy. He even levelled rape charges against the two men.
Dhaka alleged that a short while before her death, Phogat had spoken to her mother, sister and brother-in-law during which she sounded disturbed and complained against her two colleagues.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the state police were conducting a detailed investigation into the death of Phogat.
'If family wants CBI probe, will consider'
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said if Phogat's family wants a CBI probe into her death, it will be considered. Khattar said the government firmly stands with Phogat's family in this hour of grief and will consider the action as demanded by them.
"Whatever the family wants, we will do accordingly," he said.
The chief minister said since members of Phogat's family are in Goa many things like their demand for a CBI probe are being learnt through the media.
"If the family gives in writing, we will take the issue further," Khattar said while adding he had also spoken to his Goa counterpart after the incident.
With PTI inputs
