Barely a month before her 43rd birthday, Haryana’s much-talked-about BJP leader and popular TikTok star Sonali Phogat was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a hotel in Goa.
Sonali Phogat rose from a humble beginning to become a firebrand leader who loved to court controversies
Barely a month before her 43rd birthday, Haryana’s much-talked-about BJP leader and popular TikTok star Sonali Phogat was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a hotel in Goa.
An intense investigation for several days led the local police to arrest Sonali's personal secretary Sudhir Sangwan and his associate Sukhwinder Singh who subsequently confessed to their crime in police remand. The arrest followed after Sonali’s relatives suspected foul play and accused them of being involved in the crime.
The family members and the Haryana government have since demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI to solve the murder mystery. Her family has accused Sudhir of grabbing Sonali's property worth crores of rupees. Since his partner Sukhwinder is said to be allegedly connected with Gopal Kanda, the controversial independent MLA from Sirsa, the Sonali Phogat case has a political colour. However, Sonali's brother Rinku Dhaka has denied Kanda's involvement in the case.
Born on September 21 1979 in a farmer’s family in village Bhuthankalan in Fatehabad district, her original name was Sudesh. But her name was changed when she was to get married to her sister's brother-in-law Sanjay Singh Phogat soon after she passed her Class X examinations.
Since her childhood name was not found suitable enough for finalising an auspicious date for her marriage ceremony, her family decided to chang it from Sudesh to Sonali. The new name proved lucky for her as she moved ahead in life to earn name, fame and money after that.
In 2006, despite opposition from her in-laws, Sonali joined the Doordarshan Kendra Hisar as an anchor. She did not look back after that. In 2016, a tragedy struck her when her husband Sanjay Phogat was murdered under suspicious circumstances at his farmhouse, in 2016.
In an interview in 2020, Sonali talked about how strict restrictions were imposed on her at her in-laws' house. She said, "I was born in a simple farmer family and studied at a government school in the village till class 10th. After that, I was married off to my sister's brother-in-law.”
After marriage, she decided that she would do something to make a name for herself. “I established my identity outside my house with the help of my husband, regardless of the numerous restrictions imposed on women in rural families,” she said.
Incidentally, her husband was also against her foray into acting but he supported her to the hilt when she joined politics.
Sonali, who quit her television job and later worked in films with artistes such as Ravi Kishan, and Jimmy Shergill for nearly 20 years, also worked in Zee TV show 'Amma,' a web series called 'The Story of Badmashgarh' and several other serials before she cut her popular Haryanvi music album 'Bandook Aali Jatani'. After making a splash with her videos on Tiktok, she appeared in Bigg Boss-14 to catch national attention.
After her husband’s death, Sonali became active in Haryana BJP. In the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, Sonali gave a tough fight to former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi as the BJP candidate from the Adampur seat but she lost.
Sonali remained quite active in the Adampur assembly constituency since then but she suffered a major setback when Kuldeep Bishnoi joined the BJP earlier this year. Sonali, who had opened a front against Kuldeep on social media after he joined BJP, finally had to make peace with him. Two weeks ago, both of them are reported to have met at Sonali's farmhouse.
The residents of her village say that Sonali was a bold girl from the very beginning. Her boldness always reflected in her political and personal life. She had once filed a case against her sister-in-law. In June 2020, a video showing her abusing and assaulting the Adampur Market Committee secretary with her slippers had also gone viral.
During the 2019 assembly elections when she was vice-president of the women's wing of Haryana BJP and director of Haryana Kala Parishad, Hisar zone, she called upon people to say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai' and courted a lot of controversies by referring to those who did not respond to her appeal as ‘Pakistanis’. Last year, she had called the farmers protesting on the Delhi border against the three central agricultural laws as anti-nationals.
At end of the day, her ambition and pursuit of fame and wealth led her to an unfortunate end.
By Harish Manav from Chandigarh