Hisar (Haryana): Goa Police pressed a charge of murder against two associates of BJP leader Sonali Phogat after a post-mortem report mentioned that there were "multiple blunt force injuries" on her body. Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code was added to the case related to the death of the 42-year-old leader, a senior police official said.
Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Wasi, who had accompanied Phogat when she arrived in Goa on August 22, were named as accused in the case, he added.
Her brother Rinku Dhaka had filed a complaint against the two men at Anjuna Police Station on Wednesday. On Thursday, autopsy was conducted on Phogat's body at the Goa Medical College and Hospital.
Earlier Phogat's family lodged a written complaint to Goa police against both the men. Dhaka also said that one of the accused Sukhwinder used to work for Gopal Kanda until recently. After Sonali's death, Sukhwinder purportedly called up Kanda in Goa and sought help from him so that the matter can be kept at bay.
Kanda is currently an MLA from the Sirsa Assembly seat of Haryana. A member of the Haryana Lokahit Party, Kanda was elected to the Assembly as an independent MLA in 2009 and was made the Home Minister under the Hooda government. He contested from his party in 2014 but lost, though, in the year 2019, he was re-elected as MLA. Kanda is also a businessman and founder of MDLR Airlines, established in the year 2005. He owns multiple casinos in Goa and hotels in Gurugam.
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Kanda was under the scanner during the Air Hostess Geetika Sharma suicide case in 2009. Serving as the Home Minister of Haryana at the time, he evaded arrest as the police named him the prime suspect in the case. He surrendered later, was convicted, and got bail after serving two years of imprisonment.
The case, registered for abetment of suicide and physical abuse, is still being heard by the court. Apart from the Geetika suicide case, he has also been in the headlines for assaulting cricketer Atul Vasan and a local leader.
