Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after taking over the probe in the death case of Sonali Phogat, re-registered the FIR of Goa Police on a reference from the Ministry of Home Affairs which was routed to it through the Department of Personnel and Training.
Teams of the CBI along with CFSL experts this morning reached Goa to collect documents and interact with the local police officials and doctors who had examined the former TV anchor after she was brought to the hospital.
The investigation officer from the Sonali Phogat murder case will soon provide all the case documents to the expert team, and the CBI team will start further investigation. The CBI and an expert team also reached the crime scene to investigate the case thoroughly.
The special crime unit of the CBI, which will conduct the probe, will focus on whether her murder was pre-planned, the motive behind this, whether her aides – Sudhir and Sukhwinder – are alone responsible for the murder, whether she was overdosed, who the supplier of drugs were and whether usurping her property had anything to do with her death.
This development comes after Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had written a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs, seeking a CBI probe into the death of the Haryana BJP leader and popular TikTok star. Phogat’s family had also been pressing for a CBI probe into the death case.
The autopsy of Sonali Phogat revealed multiple ‘blunt injuries’ on her body. The Goa Police had also said that Phogat was “forcibly drugged by her two associates”.
So far, five persons have been arrested in the case, including her personal assistant Sudhir Sangwan and his associate Sukhwinder Singh.
Besides, Edwin Nunes, owner of the iconic Curlies where Phogat was seen partying hours before her death, as well as two others – Dattaprasad Gaonkar and Ramdas Mandrekar – have been arrested in connection with the murder.
the CBI will now take over the First Information Report (FIR) , case diary, statements and other documents related to the case of the Goa Police.
Meanwhile, a Goa court has sent accused Sudhir Sangwan and Sukhwinder Singh to 13-day judicial custody.
Phogat, from Hisar in Haryana, was brought dead to a hospital in Goa in the intervening night of August 22-23 after heavy partying at Curlies restaurant at Anjuna beach.
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