If family wants CBI probe, will consider: Khattar in BJP leader Sonali Phogat’s death case

PTI

Chandigarh, August 25

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said if BJP leader Sonali 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 while responding to their demand for a CBI probe into Phogat’s death.

Phogat, a BJP leader from Adampur in Hisar in Haryana who found fame on TikTok, was brought dead to the St Anthony Hospital in Anjuna in North Goa district on August 23 morning. Initially, the cause stated was a suspected heart attack.

However, after the post-mortem report mentioned “multiple blunt force injuries on the body” of the Haryana-based BJP leader, the Goa police on Thursday arrested two persons and charged them with murder.

Replying to another question, Khattar 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.

He said preliminary reports suggested that Sonali Phogat died of a heart attack. Later, her family gave a written complaint in Goa suspecting foul play, the Haryana chief minister said.

After the post-mortem, her family members on Thursday expressed a desire that part of her viscera be examined in the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Chandigarh, which has been agreed to, he said.

According to the Goa Police, Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Wasi, who had accompanied Phogat when she arrived in Goa on August 22, were named as accused in the case.

Her brother Rinku Dhaka had filed a complaint against the two men at Anjuna Police Station on Wednesday. Both the men have been arrested by the Goa Police in connection with the case.

A panel of forensic experts from the Goa Medical College and Hospital conducted an autopsy on Thursday morning after her family agreed to it.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told reporters in Panaji on Thursday that state police chief Jaspal Singh was personally monitoring the investigation.

The autopsy was earlier scheduled on Wednesday, but Phogat’s brother claimed she was murdered by two of her associates and the family would agree to autopsy only after an FIR was registered against them.

Dhaka, her brother, had alleged that a short while before her death, Phogat had spoken to her mother, sister and brother-in-law. She sounded disturbed during the conversation and complained against her two colleagues, he claimed.

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