Panaji
BJP leader Sonali Phogat was administered methamphetamine drugs by the accused at a restaurant in North Goa hours before her death, Goa Police said on August 27.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Jivba Dalvi said left-overs from the drugs which were given to her at Curlies Restaurant at Anjuna have been seized from the restaurant’s washroom.
Police have so far arrested her personal assistant Sudhir Sagwan, another aide Sukhwinder Singh, owner of the Curlies Restaurant Edwin Nunes and alleged drug peddler Dattaprasad Gaonkar.
With the fresh arrests, the number of persons in police custody so far rose to four. The drug peddler, Dattaprasad Gaonkar, and Edwin Nunes, who owns Curlies restaurant where Phogat had partied before her death, were detained from Anjuna on Saturday morning.
They were arrested in the afternoon, the officer said.
Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Singh, arrested earlier in the case, had "confessed" in their statement that they had procured drugs from Gaonkar, the officer said. Gaonkar and Nunes have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, he said.
Prima facie, Gaonkar sold drugs to Sagwan and Singh who made the victim consume them while partying. Nunes is held as the incident occurred on the premises of his restaurant.
The police on Friday said Sagwan and Singh allegedly mixed some "obnoxious substance" in water and forced Phogat to drink it while partying at Curlies restaurant on the intervening night of August 22 and 23, adding they have been charged with murder. The 42-year-old popular TikTok star was brought dead to St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa district on August 23 morning from her hotel.
A court in Goa on Saturday remanded Sagwan and Singh in police custody for ten days.
Nunes had confirmed to PTI earlier that Phogat had come to his restaurant like any other customer.
He, however, didn't meet Phogat and the restaurant staff treated her like any other patron, Nunes had said.
Police had said that the motive behind the alleged murder of Phogat could be "economic interest".
Goa Congress seeks CBI probe
Earlier, the Congress on demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged murder of Haryana BJP leader Sonali Phogat claiming the police were trying to hush up the matter.
Phogat died in Goa on Tuesday under mysterious circumstances following which two men, including her personal assistant, who had accompanied her to the coastal State are arrested on the charge of murder by the state police.
Also read: BJP’s Sonali Phogat was drugged by accused before death: Goa Police
“Many politicians said that her death was due to a heart attack. But finally, it has been revealed as murder. There is more to this murder than meets the eye and every angle needs to be investigated. These kinds of cases need to be investigated by the CBI to unravel the truth," Goa Leader of Opposition Michael Lobo said.
