Supreme Court stays demolition of Goa’s famed Curlies restaurant, linked to Sonali Phogat’s death

One of the must-visit places in Goa is the Curlies shack on Anjuna beach. The restaurant made headlines a few weeks ago for all the wrong reasons. Social media star and BJP member, Sonali Phogat, was drugged at the restaurant shortly before her death. Weeks later, the BJP government took out a bulldozer to raze the restaurant from existence. 

The demolition of Curlies shack started on the morning of September 9, 2022. Netizens expressed shock over the sudden news. The demolition was being carried out based on an NGT (National Green Tribunal) order posted on Thursday, September 8. 

Curlies was already fighting a legal case over green zone violations since 2016. The NGT demolition order came on September 8, and authorities seemed suspiciously in a hurry to carry it out. However, soon enough, the Supreme Court issued a stay on the demolition, but on the condition that no commercial activity takes place there. 

Demolition drives have become an identity of BJP governments in various states. In states like UP and Madhya Pradesh, the state BJP governments demolished houses of suspects in communal clashes. 

How is Curlies got linked to Sonali Phogat? Social media star and member of BJP in Haryana, Sonali Phogat, died under mysterious circumstances on August 24. CCTV footages later revealed that she was forced to drink a drug-laced beverage while at a party at Curlies the night before her death. 

Co-owner of Curlies, Edwin Nunes and others were arrested by Goa Police in the case. Nunes was later given bail. 

Phogat's personal assistant, Sudhir Sangwan and his friend Sukhwinder Wasi, are the two prime suspects in the alleged murder of the social media star. An investigation is currently underway. 

But Sonali Phogat's death case is not the only reason why Curlies is attracting scrutiny. 14 years before Phogat's death, Curlies was in the middle of a controversy over the death of a 15-year-old British girl, Scarlett Eden Keeling. Keeling was found dead on Anjuna beach on February 19, 2008. Initially her death was passed off as an accidental drowning, but later on after investigation, it was found that she was sexually assaulted before her death.

Reportedly, the teenager was heavily intoxicated between her visit from Curlies shack to Lui's Shack. A Lui's shack employee was later convicted in the case.