PANAJI
Sukhwinder Singh, one of the two accused charged with murder after BJP leader Sonali Phogat died of drug overdose in August 2022, was on Thursday denied bail in another offense pertaining to carrying the banned substance at a party in Anjuna where Phogat was drugged.
Rejecting his bail application, Sessions Judge Sherin Paul, North Goa said the man is also accused of forcing two other women to consume the drug-laced drink at the party.
“The charge sheet filed in the murder case states the applicant was responsible for giving drugs/psychotropic substance to one lady (Sonali Phogat) which resulted in her death because of the fact that even after the lady was found in a condition wherein she was unable to walk and had lost consciousness, she was not given medical attention,” the Judge observed adding, “The records in that case also indicate that the applicant was forcing the two other ladies, namely Vanya and Angela who were in the company of the applicant (Singh) to consume this psychotropic substance and thus putting them at risk of getting addicted to such contraband.”
Hence, even though the substance said to have been in his possession was a variable quantity, the Court noted that he is still not entitled to bail as his dealing with such a substance led to one death and that he intentionally put two others at risk of getting addicted to it. “Accordingly, this application is dismissed,” Paul said.
Singh, presently in judicial custody at Colvale Jail, applied for bail in a second FIR against him punishable under Sections 22(b), 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act for allegedly possessing 2.2 grams of MDMA at Curlies Beach Shack, Anjuna. The contraband, CBI said in its chargesheet, was procured from one Dattaprasad Gaonkar, consumed in the resort where the trio had checked in, and also carried in liquid form to the shack where they were to meet Vanya and Angela for a birthday party.
During the hearing, he submitted to the Court that he is innocent and not involved in the crime. He claimed that he had been falsely implicated.
His accomplice and Phogat’s Personal Assistant Sudhir Sangwan is also lodged in the judicial lock-up on charges of murder.
The CBI has kept the investigation open, although over a 1,000-page chargesheet was filed within three months of the offense. The 60-odd pages of forensic report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory at Chandigarh ascertained Phogat was drugged. Singh’s earlier bail application for the first offense against him was also rejected by the Court on February 16.
