Uttarakhand: Ex-BJP minister's son, two others sentenced to life imprisonment in Ankita Bhandari murder case
DEHRADUN: A court in Uttarakhand on Friday sentenced all the three accused in the Ankita Bhandari murder case to life imprisonment.
The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi in Kotdwar found the three accused - Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar, and Ankit Gupta - guilty of murder under sections 302 (Murder), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence), 120B (Criminal conspiracy), and 354 (Use of criminal force against a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.
Notably, the prime accused, Pulkit Arya, is the son of a former BJP Minister of Uttarakhand.
Besides awarding life term, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the convicts. The court ordered the convicts to pay Rs 4 lakh to Ankita's family.
The case dates back to September 2022, when Bhandari, a receptionist at the Vanantara Resort in Yamkeshwar block of Pauri district, was brutally murdered.
The shocking case first came to light on September 18, 2022, following the murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari. She was employed as a receptionist at the Vanantara Resort, located in the Yamkeshwar area of Pauri district. Her body was later thrown into the Cheela Shakti Canal and recovered approximately a week later, triggering widespread outrage.
Prior to her murder, Ankita, a resident of Pauri Garhwal, had reportedly expressed concerns about the resort's activities and her own safety.
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