Another drug peddler held in Sonali Phogat case

Panaji, August 28

The Goa Police have arrested one more drug peddler in connection with the case of alleged murder of BJP leader Sonali Phogat, an official said on Sunday. With this, five persons have so far been arrested in the case.

Phogat (43), a former Tik Tok star and contestant on the reality TV show “Big Boss”, was brought dead to a hospital on August 23, a day after her arrival in Goa.

On Saturday night, the Anjuna police in North Goa district arrested drug peddler Ramadas Mandrekar for allegedly supplying drugs to another peddler, Dattaprasad Gaonkar, who is already in custody in connection with the case, the official said. Gaonkar had allegedly supplied drugs to two other accused Sudhir Sangwan and Sukhwinder Singh, who had accompanied Phogat on the Goa trip.

The Goa Police on Saturday said Phogat was given methamphetamine, a recreational drug, by her aides Sangwan and Sukhwinder hours before her death. Edwin Nunes, the other arrested in case, is the owner of the Curlies restaurant in North Goa where Phogat and her aides had partied on the intervening night of August 22 and 23.

Phogat was administered methamphetamine, and some left-over drug was recovered from the restaurant’s washroom, DSP Jivba Dalvi had said.

Sagwan and Sukhwinder allegedly told the police that they had procured drugs from Gaonkar, who worked as a room boy at Hotel Grand Leoney Resort in Anjuna where they were staying. While Sagwan and Sukhwinder are charged with murder, Nunes and Gaonkar are booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.