PANAJI
The Phogat family’s fear has come true as the post-mortem on Sonali Phogat’s body has revealed she had multiple blunt injuries. Highly placed sources told The Goan that these external injuries were inflicted on the body around 6-12 hours prior to her death, clearly indicating she was abused or assaulted.
The forensic doctors have reserved opinion on the cause of death but the findings have startled Goa police, who claimed she died of a heart attack.
“The cause of death, to the best of my knowledge and belief, is reserved for chemical analysis, histopathology and serological reports of the tissues preserved. However, there are multiple blunt force injuries over the body. In view of the above, the manner of death is for the Investigating Officer to ascertain,” reads the autopsy certificate signed by Associate Professor Dr Mandar Kantak and Lecturer Dr Sunil Chimbolkar.
Sources further mentioned that her mouth swabs are also preserved for the crucial forensic examination. The samples are most likely to be sent to a central forensic lab outside Goa considering that the Phogat family had earlier raised apprehensions on the local investigators.
Sonali’s brother Rinku has slammed the police for believing her death was due to a heart attack. “How can the police say she died of a heart attack before a post-mortem,” he questioned.
After initial denial owing to police’s alleged in-cooperative behaviour, Sonali’s family gave their consent to conduct a post-mortem on the body on Wednesday morning. The autopsy lasted for close to four hours only after which the Anjuna police registered a case of murder. The local police however argued that the FIR was based on allegations made by the family.
A 33-seconds video footage, which has gone viral on social media, shows Sonali was partying with her two staff. The video is supposedly of the night before her death even as the police are yet to comment.
The family has also ruled out speculations surrounding Sonali’s links with narcotics. Rinku maintained that she was an anti-drugs campaigner who had an “allergy to drugs.” “But we cannot keep the two men out of suspicion that they could have laced Sonali’s food or drinks with drugs,” he added.
“My sister was fit and healthy. She could not have died of a heart attack. We saw her body at the mortuary and her face colour turned blue indicating she was poisoned. Sonali was being slowly poisoned by the two accused. They should be arrested and interrogated,” he said.
The Phogat family also slammed the BJP for failing to lend a helping hand despite Sonali’s 15-year association with the party. “Sonali was a hard working BJP karyakarta. She took up responsibilities without hesitation and executed her tasks diligently. But the BJP government in Goa failed us. They offered no help. We have been struggling to put up our side of the story,” Rinku said.
Sonali’s mother too demanded that a thorough investigation be carried out into her daughter’s untimely death.
