Sessions court in Kotdwar, Uttarakhand sentenced resort owner Pulkit Arya and his two aides, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, to life imprisonment in the Ankita Bhandari murder case.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADJ) court held the trio guilty under 302, 210b, 201 of IPC.
The first hearing of the case in the ADJ Court in Kotdwar began on January 30, 2023. The prosecution had submitted a 500-page charge sheet in the court.
Pulkit is the son of now-expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya, who was a minister of state in the Trivendra Singh Rawat government till 2021.
Ankita Bhandari (19), a receptionist at Vanantra Resort in Rishikesh, went missing on September 18, 2022. Six days later, her body was recovered from the Chilla canal.
Investigations revealed she had been pushed into the barrage by Pulkit Arya—son of expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya—and his associates following a dispute.
The murder had also sparked massive outrage, with protests taking place across various parts of the state. Angered locals even set fire to the resort.
What was the case?
It was alleged that Pulkit Arya, owner of the resort, along with Bhaskar and Gupta, pushed Ankita into a barrage and murdered her.
Ankita was reported missing for at least six days before police recovered her body from Rishikesh's Chilla canal on September 24, 2022.
The case was initially being probed by a special investigation team (SIT) headed by deputy inspector general of police P Renuka Devi.
During the investigation, former employees of the Vanantra resort had said that Arya, son of a former BJP minister, and Gupta used to bring women to the resort and abuse the staff, including women staffers.
They used to abuse and beat the staff for minor mistakes,” said the woman and claimed that in the past, the accused duo had assaulted her too.
Prosecution filed a 500-page chargesheet in the court following the SIT investigation into the murder.
The hearing lasted for around two years and eight months, and 47 witnesses, including the investigator, were examined in court by the prosecution. Though the SIT had listed 97 witnesses in the case, only 47 important ones were produced before the court.
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