CBI takes over probe into Sonali Phogat's death

New Delhi, September 15

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), following a direction from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has taken over the probe into the mysterious death of Haryana BJP leader Sonali Phogat in Goa last month and re-registered the FIR of the state police, officials said today.

Teams to visit Goa

• The central investigating agency has re-registered the Goa Police FIR
• Teams of the CBI and CFSL experts will visit Goa to collect documents and interact with local police officials and doctors

Teams of the CBI, along with CFSL experts, would reach Goa to collect documents and interact with local police officials and doctors, the officials said. Sources in the agency said viscera samples would give a definitive clue about the cause of Phogat’s death.

The MHA had referred the case to the CBI after Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting for a probe by the agency.

The MHA recommended to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to get the case probed by the CBI, an official privy to the development said. The CBI functions under the administrative control of the DoPT.

Phogat, from Hisar in Haryana, was brought dead to a hospital in Goa on the intervening night of August 22-23 after heavy partying at Curlies restaurant on Anjuna beach.

A former Tik Tok star and a contestant on reality TV show “Big Boss”, 43-year-old Phogat had arrived in Goa with her two male aides, Sudhir Sangwan and Sukhwinder Singh, a day before the incident.

The Goa Police had said Sangwan and Singh allegedly mixed some “obnoxious substance” in water and forced Phogat to drink that. She was administered methamphetamine and some leftover drug was found in the restaurant’s washroom, DSP Jivba Dalvi had said.

The Goa Police have so far arrested five persons, including the aides who accompanied her to Goa, two alleged drug suppliers and owner of restaurant Edwin Nunes.