Ankita Bhandari Murder Case: Ex-BJP Leader’s Son Pulkit Arya, Two Others Sentenced to Life Imprisonment

Ankita Bhandari Murder Case: An Uttarakhand court on Friday held all three defendants guilty in the 2022 sensational murder case of Ankita Bhandari, a worker at a Rishikesh-based resort.

The accused Pulkit Arya, and his associates, Saurabh Bhaskar, and Ankit Gupta, were found guilty by the additional district and Sessions judge court in Kotdwar under IPC (Indian Penal Code.) Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 354A (sexual harassment), and the relevant provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, according to India’s ANI news agency.

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The guilty accused were found guilty of the brutal murder of the 19-year-old Ankita and sentencing has not yet occurred where the prosecution is seeking maximum sentence.

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Meanwhile, Ankita’s mother Soni Devi spoke to the ANI news agency and called on the people of the state to continue responsibility for her family by demanding capital punishment for the accused.

The 2022 murder case of Ankita Bhandari, a resident of Pauri, who was working as a receptionist at Rishikesh's Vanantra Resort, caused a ripple effect throughout Uttarakhand.

The murder case also raised significant uproar, resulting in protests throughout various parts of the state, as angry locals even set the resort on fire.

It was contended that Pulkit Arya, the resort's owner, along with Bhaskar and Gupta, pushed Ankita into a barrage and killed her.

Ankita was said to be missing for at least six days before police recovered her body from a canal located in Chilla, Rishikesh on September 24, 2022.

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After the case was taken over by a special investigation team (SIT), who was headed by deputy inspector general of police P Renuka Devi, the investigation began.

During the investigation, the investigators found that former employees of Vanantra resort stated that Arya, who was the son of a former BJP minister, and Gupta would take women to the resort and mistreat employees, including women staff.

The court proceedings in the case began on January 30, 2023, when the ADJ Court in Kotdwar, heard the matter for the first time..

The prosecution filed a 500-page chargesheet in the court after the SIT led an investigation into the murder.

Following the charges being framed against Arya, Bhaskar, and Gupta, the court began hearing the witness testimony of the prosecution on March 28, 2023.

The hearing took place over a period of about two years and eight months, and the prosecution examined 47 witnesses, including the investigator, in court. Although the SITT had listed 97 witnesses in the case, only 47 key and necessary witnesses were produced in the Court.

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