Ankita Bhandari murder case: Former BJP leader's son, 2 others get life term in Uttarakhand

After nearly three years of legal battles, a local court in Uttarakhand convicted and sentenced three men to life imprisonment for the murder of a 19-year-old hotel receptionist, who was pushed into a canal.

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The three convicted — Pulkit Arya (the 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 Indian Penal Code, along with relevant provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.

After the verdict was announced and the cops were set to take the three accused back to 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 the victim spoke to media persons and demanded death punishment for the perpetrators.

Ankita Bhandari, a young receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Yamkeshwar near Rishikesh, had been working at the property for less than a month when she was brutally 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 Cheela canal after she allegedly resisted pressure to offer "special services" to resort guests.

Arya, the 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. By then, public anger had reached a boiling point. Protests erupted across Uttarakhand, with citizens demanding justice and accountability.

The case quickly took on political dimensions. As public pressure mounted, the BJP expelled Vinod Arya from the party — a move seen as a damage-control measure.

All the 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 cops, 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 Bhandari's disappearance, the accused had informed local Patwari Vaibhav Pratap since the area was under 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 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 out 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.