Sonali Phogat given recreational drug at Curlies night before death: Goa Police
BJP leader and social media influencer Sonali Phogat was given recreational drug methamphetamine by accused at Curlies beach shack restaurant, said the Goa Police on Saturday.
Phogat was brought dead to St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa district on August 23 morning from the hotel where she was staying. While initially it was suggested that the Haryana BJP leader had died of heart attack, after her family pressed for an investigation, investigation revealed she had been drugged a night before her death at the popular nightclub.
The latest statement from the Goa Police came after two more persons were arrested in the murder case, taking the total number of arrests to four, including her manager Sudhir Sangwan and Sukhwinder Singh. The duo have been remanded in police custody for two days.
Earlier in the day, the owner of Curlies restaurant, Edwin Nunes, and Dattaprasad Gaonkar, a peddler, were arrested. According to reports, Gaonkar had allegedly provided the drugs to Phogat’s two associates who fed them to her.
Gaonkar and Nunes were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, a senior police officer said.
“Investigation has revealed that the drugs were supplied by Gaonkar who was working as a room boy in Hotel Grand Leoney Resort, Anjuna where the accused persons and the deceased lady were staying,” the Goa Police was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
A PTI report quoted Nunes as saying said that Phogat had visited his restaurant “like any other customer”, but he had not met her.
Several videos, mainly CCTV footage from the popular beach shack restaurant and the hotel where she stayed, have showed the TikTok star being given some drink by her associate and then being taken to her hotel room in an inebriated state.
On Friday, police said Phogat drink had been spiked and that Sagwan and Singh allegedly mixed some “obnoxious substance” in water and forced the politician to drink it.
The duo were initially detained and a First Information Report for murder was registered after the autopsy report said that there were multiple “blunt force injuries” on her body though it reserved opinion on the cause of death pending chemical analysis.