Sonali Phogat's Death: Three Accused Sent To Seven-Days Judicial Custody

Three persons arrested in connection with the death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sonali Phogat were on Friday sent to seven days of judicial custody in Goa.

Phogat died on August 23 hours after arriving in Goa with her aides. Her death is being treated as a case of murder. So far, her personal assistant Sudhir Sangwan, another aide Sukhwinder Singh, restaurateur Edwin Nunes, alleged drug peddlers Dattaprasad Gaonkar and Ramdas Mandrekar have been arrested. 

Nunes, Gaonkar and Mandrekar were remanded in judicial custody for seven days by a court in Panaji, a police official said. Nunes owns Curlies restaurant. Their five-day police remand ended on Friday, after which they were produced in the court, the police official added.

Phogat and her aides had partied at the Curlies on the intervening night of August 22-23. Besides being a BJP leader, Phogat had also found fame on Tik Tok and she was also a contestant on the reality TV show "Bigg Boss". She was brought dead to a hospital in North Goa district on August 23. Her two aides Sangwan and Singh have been charged with murder by the Goa police.

Phogat was administered methamphetamine, and some left-over drug was recovered from the restaurant's washroom, Deputy Superintendent of Police Jivba Dalvi had said earlier. 

Earlier on Thursday, a team of Goa Police visited Phogat's home in Haryana's Hisar and later met revenue officials as part of their investigation her suspected murder. She was a native of Haryana. 

The police team had arrived in Hisar on Wednesday and family members of Phogat were present when they went to her house, which was closed for the past several days. Later in the day, the police team met revenue officials.

Sources said the Goa Police is also assessing the property, including land, which is in Phogat's name and was trying to find out if there is any property angle involved in the case. Some relatives had earlier alleged that her associate Sudhir Sangwan was eyeing her property.

Government of Haryana has asked the Goa government to recommend a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the case. Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said Phogat's family has levelled serious allegations that "big names" can also be involved in the murder case.

"Sonali Phogat's family had given a letter to the [Haryana] chief minister demanding a CBI inquiry into the matter. The family has levelled serious allegations that big names can also be involved in this murder. On the basis of the letter of the family, the state government wrote to the chief minister of Goa to get the matter probed by the CBI.. so that all the facts in the case come out," Vij was quoted as saying in a statement.

(With PTI inputs)