Harish Rawat stages dharna demanding CBI inquiry into Ankita Bhandari murder case

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], December 27 (ANI): Senior Congress leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat sat on a 24-hour dharna with several congress supporters and leaders at Gandhi Park in Dehradun, demanding a CBI inquiry into the Ankita Bhandari murder case and disclosure of the names of VIPs involved.

The former CM sat on the Dharna from Monday afternoon and said that the public wants answers to the questions in the Ankita murder case. “The public wants to know on whose orders a bulldozer was fired at the resort, why the resort was not sealed, how the fire broke out twice despite the presence of the police in the resort,” said Rawat.

The body of 19-year-old Ankita, who worked as a receptionist at a resort run by Pulkit Arya, the son of expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya, was recovered from Chilla canal in Rishikesh on September 24.

She was reported missing for at least six days before the officials found her body.
Pulkit Arya was arrested for allegedly pushing her into the canal following an altercation. Two more people – Ankit Gupta and Saurabh Bhaskar, have also been arrested in the case.

On December 4, the Uttarakhand Police said that the investigation into the Ankita Bhandari murder case is almost complete. The only procedure that remains is the Narco tests of the accused, for which they had sought permission from the Kotdwar court to conduct Narco and Polygraph tests of all three accused.

Rawat said that people want to know the name of the VIP to whom Ankita had refused to provide special services, following which he was murdered by the BJP leader’s son.

As per the latest developments in the case, last week, the three accused, including expelled BJP leader’s son Pulkit Arya have refused to undergo narco and polygraph tests.

The counsel appearing for the accused said in the Judicial Magistrate Court in Kotdwar, Uttarkhand that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) did not explain why it wanted to conduct narco and polygraph tests after filing the charge sheet.