Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said his Government is ready to hand over the probe into the death of BJP leader Sonali Phogat to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), if required.
Phogat (43), a former Tik Tok star from Hisar in Haryana and contestant on the reality TV show ‘Big Boss’ was brought dead to a hospital in North Goa August 23, a day after arrival in the coastal State. The State police have so far arrested five people in connection with the case. These include two associates of Phogat who have been charged with her murder. Talking to reporters in Panaji, Sawant said Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has already spoken to him requesting for a detailed investigation into the case. Sawant said his Haryana counterpart told him that the Phogat family wants the CBI to take over the case.
“I don’t have any issue with it. After all formalities today, if required, will give this case to the CBI,” the Goa CM said. Sawant also said the Goa Police are thoroughly investigating the case.
Meanwhile, a Goa court on Sunday remanded three of the accused arrested in the murder of Phogat to police custody for five days, a senior police official said. The police produced the three accused — Edwin Nunes, who owns the Curlies restaurant in Goa, and two drug peddlers Dattaprasad Gaonkar and Ramakant Mandrekar — before the court in Panaji. The court sent them in police custody for five days, the official said.
However, in a fresh twist to the case, Edwin Nunes’ lawyer on Sunday claimed his client didn’t own the Curlies restaurant in north Goa where Phogat and two of her male companions had partied hours before her death. Nunes had also moved an application for bail, but the court rejected it, the official added.
Advocate Kamalakant Poulekar, representing Nunes, told the court that his client doesn’t own Curlies restaurant located on the Anjuna beach and it is for the prosecution to find and prove who owns the place. He said there are no papers establishing that Nunes has the ownership rights of the restaurant.