CBI takes over probe of influencer & BJP leader Sonali Phogat’s death, re-registers FIR

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday took over the probe of the death of Haryana BJP leader and social media influencer Sonali Phogat and re-registered an FIR of the Goa Police on a reference from the ministry of home affairs (MHA).

The CBI teams along with CFSL experts will soon reach Goa to collect documents and interact with local police officers, and doctors who had examined Phogat, reported news agency PTI.

The viscera samples will give a definitive clue about the cause of Phogat’s death, officials said.

On Monday, the Union home ministry had recommended a CBI probe into the Tiktok star’s death in the coastal state. The MHA’s move came after Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah requesting a CBI probe into the case. Phogat’s family had also welcomed the Centre’s recommendation.

Her family alleged that she was “murdered” and she did not pass away due to a “cardiac arrest”, which the initial police and medical reports had suggested.

Phogat was declared dead at the St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa on August 23. The Goa Police had registered a murder case after the post-mortem report suggested “blunt force injury” on her body. Police had also said that Phogat was “forcibly drugged by her two associates” – who have been arrested.

So far, five people have been arrested in the case – Sonali Phogat’s personal assistant Sudhir Sangwan and his associate Sukhwinder Singh, Edwin Nunes, owner of Curlies where Phogat was seen partying the night before her death and two others – Dattaprasad Gaonkar and Ramdas Mandrekar. Nunes was later granted bail in the case.