BJP leader and actress Sonali Phogat dies of suspected heart attack in Goa

KATHMANDU: Haryana BJP leader and actress Sonali Phogat died last night of a heart attack in Goa.

She was 41 years old. Sonali’s brother confirmed her death. Capt Bhupender, district president of the Hisar BJP said, “Sonali ji was in Goa. I spoke to her assistant and he said that she died of a heart attack”.

On Monday night, she was brought to St Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa district after she complained of uneasiness, sources said.

Goa Director General of Police Jaspal Singh told PTI that Phogat complained of uneasiness while she was at ‘Curlies’ restaurant in Anjuna from where she was taken to the hospital.

There is no foul play in the case, he said.

“There are no external injury marks on the body,” Singh said, adding that the postmortem report will reveal the exact cause of the death.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Mapusa) Jivba Dalvi said she was brought dead to the hospital.

“Prime facie, the cause of death is established as heart attack but further medical examination is on,” he said.

The postmortem would be conducted at the state-run Goa Medical College and Hospital at Bambolim, the official said.

She along with some of her staff members had gone to Goa. A former TikTok star, Phogat had joined the BJP in 2019.

She had contested the last Assembly election as a BJP candidate from the Adampur constituency against Kuldeep Bishnoi, which she lost.

Kuldeep Bishnoi had gone to meet her at her residence last week after he joined the BJP.

Her husband too had died reportedly due to a heart attack a few years ago.

She was a native of Bhutan Kalan village in Fatehabad district and was married to Sanjay Phogat of Hisar.

Her husband was found dead in their farmhouse in 2016. Family members of Sonali Phogat are going to Goa to take her body for cremation.