The Goa Police on Thursday registered a murder case to investigate the death of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sonali Phogat, The Indian Express reported.
After the 42-year-old died in Goa on Monday, the police had said that on prima facie basis, she appeared to have suffered a heart attack. However, on Wednesday, Phogat’s brother Rinku Dhaka filed a complaint accusing her personal assistant Sudhir Sangwan and his aide Sukhvinder of killing the BJP leader.
The two have been detained as suspects after the police registered a first information report under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, Inspector General of Police Omvir Singh Bishnoi said, according to The Indian Express.
Phogat’s family had refused permission for an autopsy till a case is registered, according to NDTV. On Thursday, the family allowed the postmortem examination to be conducted.
While Dr Sunil Shrikant Chimbolkar in his postmortem report reserved the opinion on the cause of death pending chemical analysis, he wrote that “multiple blunt force injuries” were found on her body, according to PTI.
“In view of the above, the manner of death is for the investigating officer to ascertain,” the report added.
The BJP leader rose to fame with her videos on the TikTok app. She had joined the BJP in 2008.
In 2019, she contested the Haryana Assembly elections from Adampur constituency and lost to Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was a Congress leader then. In 2020, Phogat was a participant of reality show Bigg Boss.
She had gone to Goa with some of her staff members. After she complained of uneasiness on Monday, she was taken to St Anthony Hospital in North Goa district.
In his complaint, Phogat’s brother, Rinku Dhaka, said that the BJP leader had told the family that she would visit Chandigarh from her hometown of Hisar, but visiting Goa was not part of her plan. He alleged that Phogat’s associates planned her murder.
Dhaka claimed that Phogat had found out that Sangwan stole Rs 40 lakh from her Hisar home. Phogat was supposed to file a complaint against Sangwan after returning from her trip, Dhaka claimed in the complaint.
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