Sonali Phogat Murder Case: Goa Sessions Court Allows 2-Week Trip To Indonesia For Celebrating Wife's Birthday

Panaji: A sessions court in Goa allowed an accused in the Sonali Phogat murder case to travel abroad. Notably, the accused filed an application in the court for permission to travel to Indonesia’s Bali for two weeks to celebrate his wife’s birthday.

Singh was released on Bail on the condition that he had to surrender the passport and should not leave Goa without the court’s permission. Later, the accused also sought permission to travel to his native place. The court has granted permission.

It was recently that Singh approached the court with an application seeking permission to travel to Indonesia with his wife to celebrate her birthday. However, the prosecution argued that Singh did not mention the Indonesian travel in its itinerary provided by him.

The accused filed a rejoinder, provided his detailed travel itinerary. According to a report published in The Indian Express, the couple would travel to Kuta from September 9 to September 13, and then they would travel to Canggu and stay there till September 17. As per the detailed itinerary provided, the couple would later travel to Uluwatu and would return to India on September 23.

The court told the accused to handover his passport to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) upon returning to India.

Notably, Phogat, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and actor, was allegedly murdered in August 2022 in Goa’s Anjuna. Phogat arrived in Goa on August 22, 2022, with her personal assistant, Sudhir Sangvan, and Singh. The accused was the BJP leader’s aide. They went to  a nightclub in Anjuna on the same night. However, Phogat was taken to St Anthony’s Hospital in Anjuna in the early hours of the next day .

Initially, the police filed a case of “unnatural death. However, after the postmortem report revealed injuries on the BJP leader’s body, the Goa Police registered a murder case. An investigation revealed that Phogat died after consuming drugs [MDMA], allegedly administered by Sangvan and Singh during the party, reported The Indian Express.

The case was later handed over to the CBI.