The Goa Police on Saturday arrested one more person in connection with their investigation into the death of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sonali Phogat, PTI reported. Five persons have been arrested in this case so far.
Ramadas Mandrekar was arrested for allegedly supplying drugs to another peddler Dattaprasad Gaonkar, who is already in custody, according to PTI.
Gaonkar was arrested on Saturday morning along with Edwin Nunes, who owns the Curlies restaurant in North Goa.
Phogat was brought dead to a hospital in North Goa on Monday. The police had initially said that 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 Singh of killing her. The police filed a murder case on Thursday and arrested Sangwan and Singh the next day.
On Friday, the police told the media that Sangwan and Singh confessed to having mixed an “obnoxious chemical” into a liquid and made Phogat drink it during a party. The incident is said to have taken place at Curlies restaurant between the night of August 22 and the early hours of August 23.
Both, Sangwan and Singh, were sent to 10-day police custody on Saturday.
On Sunday, the other three accused – Mandrekar, Gaonkar and Nunes – were also sent to police custody for five days by a Goa court.
Nunes had moved an application for bail, but the court rejected it, PTI reported, citing an unnamed official.
Will give this case to CBI if required, says Goa CM
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said that the state government can hand over the investigation into the death of Phogat to the Central Bureau of Investigation if required, ANI reported.
This came a day after his Haryana counterpart, Manohar Lal Khattar said that he will write to the Goa government requesting a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry in the case.
“He [Khattar] wants CBI to take over after family members met him, and asked for the same,” Sawant told ANI. “I don’t have an issue with it. After all formalities today, if required, will give this case to [the] CBI.”
On Saturday, Khattar met Phogat’s family in Chandigarh and assured them of all possible help, The Indian Express reported.
“The government is firmly standing with the family in this sensitive time and it will take every possible step to ensure justice in this case,” Khattar had said.
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