Sonali Phogat's last rites held in Haryana, daughter Yashodhara lits funeral pyre

The last rites of Haryana BJP leader Sonali Phogat, who died under mysterious circumstances in Goa, were held here on Friday even as a large number of people turned up to pay their last respects.

Phogat's teenage daughter Yashodhara lit the funeral pyre as she and the other family members bade her a tearful adieu at the cremation ground in Rishi Nagar.

Phogat, who started her career as a news anchor, later found fame on video hosting platform TikTok and also acted in a few movies.

On Thursday evening, her body was brought to her farmhouse here from Goa to enable people pay their tributes.

Haryana Minister Kamal Gupta, the BJP MLA from Hisar, and another party leader Kuldeep Bishnoi were present.

On August 23 morning, Phogat was rushed to St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa, where she was declared dead. Her husband, too, had died under mysterious circumstances a few years ago.

Though initially, it was assumed that she may have died due to a heart attack, a post-mortem report mentioned that there were "multiple blunt force injuries" on her body, prompting the Goa Police to press charges of murder against two of her associates Sudhir Sagwan and Sukhwinder Wasi.

Her brother Rinku Dhaka had filed a complaint against the two men at Anjuna Police Station on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said his government will consider handing over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation if the Phogat family wanted so.

On Friday, Kuldeep Bishnoi said he had spoken to the chief minister and urged him for a CBI inquiry.

Published on: Friday, August 26, 2022, 05:03 PM IST