The murder case of actor and BJP leader Sonali Phogat has taken yet another sensational turn with the emergence of a security camera footage from a Goa restaurant which purportedly shows her staggering out as she is helped by Sudhir Sangwan, one of her two associates arrested in the case.
Earlier in the day, the police said it has in its possession footage showing Sudhir Sangwan making Phogat forcibly drink water that had “some obnoxious substance” during a party at the North Goa restaurant which they stated might have caused her death. Two men were seen taking Phogat to the washroom of the restaurant around 4.30 am on August 23 and the three of them were inside the washroom for two hours.
#SonaliPhogat‘s video is getting viral… #SonaliPhogat‘s drink was spiked by accused at restaurant before her death#SonaliPhogatDeath pic.twitter.com/5NEgWnRLKF
— Mamta Gusain (@Mamtagusain5) August 26, 2022
Two other women were also with the accused at the party and were seen cutting a cake, the police said, adding that both were being questioned.
Earlier, there were reports of the leader having multiple “blunt force injuries” on her body which the accused claimed could have been caused by abrasion while she was being taken to the hospital.
However, the Goa Police now claimed that the body didn’t have any injury, fracture, or mark as such that proved she died due to an injury.
“In this particular case, there was no serious injury to the body (Sonali Phogat). We got the post-mortem done. The body didn’t have any injury, fracture or mark as such that proved she died due to an injury. The post-mortem report remained inconclusive. The only way left is to subject the suspects to questioning to ascertain the manner of death,” Goa DGP Jaspal Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Initially, the TikTok star’s death was seen as a case of a heart attack after she was brought dead to a hospital in Anjuna, North Goa, the next morning. But it was only after her family demanded a probe into the matter, that an angle of murder was also drawn. Phogat’s family has also leveled allegations of rape against Sangwan and his aide.
The two accused, Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Singh were Phogat’s associates and had arrived in Goa with her on August 22. At present, they have been detained by Goa Police and would be arrested soon, said Inspector General of Police Omvir Singh Bishnoi. Sagwan and Singh confessed during questioning that they had intentionally mixed the substance in her drinks.
The motive behind killing her could be some economic interest, the IGP said. Meanwhile, the police is yet to record the statement of taxi drivers who ferried her from Curlies restaurant to the hotel where she was staying and later to the hospital.
Born in the small village of Bhuthan Kalan on September 21, 1979, Phogat finished her schooling at Pioneer Convent School, Fatehabad, and completed her BA degree from Maharshi Dayanand University in Haryana. Her father is a farmer and she has three sisters and one brother. The BJP leader from Hisar began as an anchor on Doordarshan, later found fame on TikTok and as an actress as well as graduated onto being a contestant on Big Boss. The former leader is survivde by a teenage daughter.
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