Dehradun: Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, and two others have been sentenced to undergo rigorous life Imprisonment for the murder of Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old receptionist of the Vanantra Resort at Yamkeshwar in the Pauri district of Uttarakhand in 2022. The murder created a sensation across the country.
On Friday, the court of the Additional District and Session Judge of Kotdwar, Uttarakhand found Pulkit Arya, owner of the resort and his two employees Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankita Gupta guilty in the matter. The Court later passed the sentence.
According to the prosecution, Ankita had an argument with Pulkit after the latter suggested that she take ‘special care’ of certain guests. Following this, Pulkit and the other two allegedly murdered the young woman on September 18 and threw her body into the Cheela canal in Rishikesh.
There was furore after the body was fished out and other employees of the resort spoke out against Pulkit and the others. The BJP expelled Vinod Arya from the party and the Uttarakhand government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter.
The hearing lasted for two years and eight months, during which 47 witnesses deposed before the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi.
Residents of Pauri had come out on the streets in large numbers after the incident claiming that Pulkit would tamper with evidence as he is influential. A part of the resort was razed immediately after the incident. While the administration claimed that it was an illegal construction, some said that the demolition was undertaken to do away with vital evidence.
Some witnesses had claimed that the Aryas used the resort to entertain certain VIPs and VVIPs from whom they sought favours.
