3 get life term in Ankita murder case in Uttarakhand

After a nearly three-year legal battle, a court in Uttarakhand on Friday convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment three men who murdered a 19-year-old hotel receptionist, Ankita Bhandari, by pushing her into the gushing waters of a canal. The three convicts — Pulkit Arya (son of a now expelled BJP leader) and his two associates, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta — were found guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 354A (sexual harassment) of the IPC, along with relevant provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. After the verdict was announced and the police were set to take the three convicts back to the prison, a brief moment of one of the convicts smiling and waving at the public was captured on camera. Before the hearing, the mother of victim Ankita spoke to mediapersons and demanded the death penalty for the perpetrators of the crime. Ankita, a young receptionist at Vanantra Resort in Yamkeshwar near Rishikesh, had been working at the property for less than a month when she was murdered on the night of September 18, 2022. According to the investigation, Pulkit Arya, owner of the resort, and his two employees pushed Ankita into the fast-moving Cheela canal after she allegedly resisted pressure to offer “special services” to resort guests. Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, tried to cover up the crime by filing a false missing person report. Ankita’s body was recovered six days later, on September 24. By then, public anger had reached a boiling point. Protests erupted across Uttarakhand, with citizens demanding justice and accountability. In what came as a sudden expression of outrage, locals even torched Vanantra Resort. The case quickly took on political dimensions. Pulkit’s father, Vinod Arya, was a well-known BJP leader and had previously served in various party and government roles. As public pressure mounted, the BJP expelled him from the party — a move seen as a damage-control measure amid mounting criticism. All three accused were arrested by the state police and a special investigation team (SIT), led by Deputy Inspector General of Police P Renuka Devi, was formed to investigate the incident. The trial formally began on January 30, 2023, in the Additional District and Sessions Court in Kotdwar where the police, after an intense investigation, filed a 500-page chargesheet detailing the circumstances of the crime and the deliberate cover-up that followed. The police investigation revealed that on the night of Ankita’s disappearance, the accused had informed local patwari Vaibhav Pratap — since the area was under the revenue police jurisdiction. However, no FIR was registered. Instead, Pratap failed to report the matter and went on leave. The case was transferred to the regular police only on September 22, after public pressure mounted. Pratap was later suspended and arrested by the SIT for negligence and suspected collusion with the accused. After the beginning of the trial, the court examined 47 witnesses of the 97 listed over a period of two years and eight months. The evidence included witness testimonies, forensic findings and digital records, which established the timeline of events and the active roles played by all three accused in Ankita’s murder and the subsequent attempt to erase evidence.

India