CBI may have to rely on cops to solve Phogat case: Legal experts

Panaji: The mysterious death of Haryana BJP functionary Sonali Phogat may have been handed over to CBI, but legal experts reckon that in the absence of any strong evidence of murder or motive behind her death, the investigating agency may be up against the wall.
Goa police, which had been investigating the murder case till Monday since her death on August 23, is yet to find any clinching evidence or arrive at any motive for her “murder”. With forensic experts reserving their opinion on the cause of death and the scene of crime, Curlie’s shack at Anjuna where Phogat was allegedly forcibly given drugs, being partially destroyed during the demolition drive, “CBI may have to depend on the evidence collected by Goa police” and its investigation to arrive at a conclusion, legal experts said.
“CBI will have to depend on the report from the forensic lab. The case of murder is clearly dependent on motive. Evidence on that count is clearly lacking. Looks like it is a case of drug overdose which BJP and family does not want to admit,” advocate Cleofato Almeida Coutinho told TOI.
After thoroughly interrogating the two accused—Sudhir Sangvan and Sukhwinder Singh—and verifying the documents seized from Haryana, Goa police had not been able to establish whether Phogat was murdered with the motive of finishing her political career or for economic interest.
To make matters worse, CBI is entering the scene when Goa police have already exhausted the maximum police custody of 14 days of Sangvan and Singh, who are in judicial custody, and all that the agency can do now is to scrutinise the evidence collected by the state police.
Legal experts said even if an investigating agency is changed, they cannot seek more police custody in the case as it has been entirely exhausted.
The postmortem report of Phogat has also been inconclusive with the doctors reserving their opinion till they receive the chemical report of viscera and the histopathological and serological reports. The viscera has been sent the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Chandigarh and its report is awaited.
On Monday, the state handed over the Phogat case to the CBI. CM Pramod Sawant’s decision came a day after the ‘sarv jatya khap mahapanchayat’ gave an ultimatum to the Goa BJP government to recommend a CBI probe by September 23. The mahapanchayat was held in Hisar, Haryana. Sawant said that the demand to shift the case came from Haryana and from Phogat’s daughter.
Legal experts also pointed to CBI’s track record in investigating high-profile cases in Goa.
In 2008, after British teenager Scarlett Keeling was murdered at Anjuna, Goa police filed a chargesheet under Section 302 and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Section 8 of the Goa Children’s Act. Later, the case was transferred to the CBI. In July 2019, the high court of Bombay at Goa convicted Samson D'Souza and acquitted Placido Carvalho.
However, after conducting investigations for over 16 months, the CBI dropped the murder charges against the accused and filed a supplementary chargesheet for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, outraging the modesty of a woman, causing hurt by means of drugs, destroying evidence, abetment, and grave sexual assault.
In another case, an alleged nexus between police, politicians, and the drug mafia, CBI registered an FIR but couldn’t establish a link.
Currently, the agency is investigating the 2013 rape of a minor girl in Vasco. As the local crime branch failed to make progress, the CBI took over the case after an NGO demanded that it probes it. In 2017, the CBI approached the JFMC, Vasco, seeking permission to close the case. After her parents objected, CBI restarted the investigation and identified the suspect.
In 2018, the family of Swedish national Felix Dahl demanded a CBI inquiry after Goa police closed the murder case. In August 2018, on the direction of the high court, CBI registered an FIR against an unknown person, and is still investigating the case.