Ankita cremated as Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami assures speedy trial

PTI

Dehradun, September 25

The family of the 19-year-old receptionist allegedly murdered by a BJP leader’s son cremated her Sunday and protesters lifted an eight-hour blockade of a key highway after Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami assured justice.

Will ensure killers are hanged, says DGP

Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar on Sunday assured Ankita Bhandari’s family that the police would produce enough evidence in court to hang her killers. “I have spoken to the victim’s father on the phone and assured him of an impartial probe into her killing and strictest punishment to the guilty. They will not be spared at any cost,” the DGP said in a social media post. PTI

Ankita Bhandari’s family had initially refused to perform her last rites until they received the final post-mortem report. A preliminary report of an autopsy conducted at AIIMS, Rishikesh, said she died of drowning, but there were ante-mortem injuries (injuries before death) on her body. She was cremated on the banks of the Alaknanda at Shrinagar around 6.30 pm in the presence of Commissioner, Garhwal, Sushil Kumar and Pauri DM Vijay Kumar Jogdande.

Ankita’s body was found in the Cheela canal close to Rishikesh on Saturday, six days after her parents found her missing from her room. She was killed allegedly by her employer. A message from the CM that SIT was doing its job and the perpetrators would get punishment following a speedy trial helped convince the woman’s relatives to finally cremate her.

Earlier, protesters demanding justice for Bhandari sat on a dharna on the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway in Uttarakhand’s Srinagar. The blockade lasted for nearly eight hours, leading to a nine-km-long traffic snarl. The woman worked at the Vanantara resort in Pauri district’s Yamkeshwar block owned by Haridwar BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya. Pulkit and two other employees have been arrested in the case.

Violent protests had erupted in areas surrounding the resort with local people breaking glass panes and some trying to torch a pickle factory on its premises as news of the murder spread. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the Uttarakhand government should act with seriousness and sensitivity in the case and demanded that the accused be tried in a fast-track court.

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