Who is Pulkit Arya? Uttarakhand resort owner sentenced to life imprisonment in Ankita Bhandari murder case
The Additional District and Sessions Judge Court Kotdwar in the Pauri district of Uttarakhand on Friday convicted Pulkit Arya and two others and sentenced them to life imprisonment in the murder case of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari.
Pulkit Arya, along with 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, as well as provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi sentenced the three accused in the case, according to prosecution lawyer Ajay Pant. All of them were sentenced to life imprisonment, and have been asked to pay fines.
'All three accused have been sentenced to life imprisonment. They have been convicted under Section 302, sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of ₹ 50,000. On the appeal of the prosecution, a fine of ₹ 4 lakh was ordered to be paid to the victim's parents as compensation. The full judgment is yet to come. We had presented forty-seven witnesses,' Ankita's lawyer Avnish Negi said.
Pulkit Arya used to be the resort operator of Vanantra Resort located in Yamkeshwar of Pauri district, where Ankita Bhandari (19) used to work as a receptionist.
Arya, along with Bhaskar and Gupta, were convicted of murdering Ankita on September 18, 2022, sparking widespread outrage.
Apart from being a resort operator, Pulkit Arya is the son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya.
As soon as the matter came to light, the party showed the door to Vinod Arya, who was the chairman of Uttarakhand Mati Kala Board and the BJP Other Backward Classes (OBC) Morcha's national executive.
Pulkit Arya, the main accused in the case and the resort owner, was arrested on September 23, 2022.
The body of the victim, who went missing on September 18 that year, was found five days later on September 22. Her body was recovered from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh, following which an SIT headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police P Renuka Devi started initial probes into the case.
The three convicts were accused of throwing the victim into a barrage and killing her.
According to the prosecution, Bhandari and Arya had a dispute over something after which the trio pushed the woman into the Cheela canal in Rishikesh.
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