India / Big action by Goa Police in Sonali Phogat death case owner of Curlies restaurant in custody

Goa Police on Friday arrested two more people, including a club owner and a drug smuggler, in connection with the death of Haryana BJP leader Sonali Phogat. Police also recovered drugs from the washroom of the club. Goa Police said, "The owner was arrested as drugs were recovered from the club. He has been arrested after interrogation. More details about the seized drugs are yet to come."

Police have arrested drug smuggler Dattaprasad Gaonkar. He had supplied drugs to accused Sukhwinder Singh. Police had yesterday arrested two accused Sukhwinder Singh and Sudhir Sangwan in connection with the case.

Let us tell you that earlier Goa Police had said that Sonali Phogat's drink was mixed by two of her associates during a party. This probably led to Phogat's death. Both of them are accused in the Phogat 'murder case'. Goa Police had given this information on Friday. A senior police officer said that economic interest could be the reason behind Phogat's murder. He said that both the accused (Sudhir Sangwan and Sukhwinder Singh) have been arrested so that they cannot tamper with the evidence and influence the witnesses.

Inspector General of Police Omvir Singh Bishnoi said both the accused were seen adding "some chemical substance" to the drink, which was served to Phogat at a party held at Anjuna's restaurant. Sangwan and Singh had accompanied Phogat to Goa on 22 August. Bishnoi said that the accused have admitted to intentionally administering drugs to Phogat at Anjuna's restaurant in North Goa during police interrogation. The incident happened on the intervening night of 22-23 August.

The police officer said that the investigating officer checked the CCTV footage of the restaurant, which found that Sangwan allegedly forcibly made Phogat drink the drink. He said that on August 23, at around 4:30 am, both the accused took Phogat to the washroom, where the three men had stayed inside for two hours. Bishnoi said it would be known only after custodial interrogation what happened during those two hours.