The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and social media personality, who was found dead at a hotel in Goa earlier this week, was administered with recreational drug called 'methamphetamine' by the accused at a restaurant in hours before her death, Goa Police said on Saturday. According to reports, two more people have been arrested by Anjuna Police today in connection with the suspected murder case.
Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar-led government has written to Goa seeking a CBI probe into the case after Phogat's family met CM on Saturday evening.
"Haryana government has assured us there will be a CBI probe and we will get justice. Everything will come to fore. It can be seen in video that it was done forcefully. She told me that something wrong is being done to her after that her phone got off," Rupesh, Sonali Phogat's sister told news agency ANI after meeting CM Khattar.
After investigation, left-overs from the drugs which were given to Phogat at Curlies Restaurant at Anjuna have been seized from the restaurant's washroom, Deputy Superintendent of Police Jivba Dalvi, news agency PTI reported.
"The drugs given to her have been identified as methamphetamine," Dalvi said.
Phogat, who rose to fame with her TikTok videos, was brought dead to St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa district on August 23 morning from the hotel where she was staying. Intially, doctors said she had had a heart attack, but her brother alleged that her aides Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Singh, who had arrived in Goa with her, had played a role in her death.
As per police, the drugs were supplied to Sagwan and Singh by Gaonkar who worked as a room boy at Hotel Grand Leoney Resort in Anjuna where Phogat and others were staying.
Police have so far arrested four people inccluding Sagwan, Singh, owner of the Curlies Restaurant Edwin Nunes and alleged drug peddler Dattaprasad Gaonkar. While Singh and Sagwan are charged with murder, Nunes and Gaonkar are booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
On Friday, Police had said that Sagwan and Singh allegedly mixed some "obnoxious substance" in water and forced Phogat to drink it.
Earlier in the day, Phogat's brother Rinku Dhaka said that motive behind her sister's murder could be property and money. He also said his family is "satisfied" with the police investigation into her death in Goa.
Dhaka also claimed that Phogat was taken to Goa on the pretext of a film shoot. "I didn't see any actor or film shoot. There was no one apart from Sudhir and Sukhwinder Singh."
The last rites of Sonali, were held on Friday even as a large number of people turned up to pay their last respects. Phogat's teenage daughter Yashodhara lit the funeral pyre.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has said if BJP leader Phogat's family wants a CBI probe into her death, it will be considered. "If the family gives in writing, we will take the issue further," Khattar has said.