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Ankita Bhandari murder case: Court give life imprisonment to three accused
A court of Additional District Judge (ADJ) in Uttarakhand's Pauri district on Friday sentenced three accused to life imprisonment in the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case.
Ankita Bhandari (19) worked at Vanantra Resort, in Yamkeshwar of Pauri district, as a receptionist. She was murdered by the resort owner, Pulkit Arya (the son of now expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya), and two of his employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, on September 18, 2022, news agency PTI reported.
The three were convicted under multiple sections, including Section 302 (murder), Section 201 (destruction of evidence), Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), Section 354A (sexual harassment), and provisions of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.
Reports suggest that Ankita was pushed into the barrage by the resort owner and his two employees. Bhandari was reported missing for at least six days before her body was recovered on September 24 from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh.
The incident triggered protests by locals seeking justice for the 19-year-old victim. Following the intensified protests, the Uttarakhand government formed a special investigation team to probe the murder. Parts of the resort where Ankita worked were also demolished in an order passed by the authorities, alleging some structures were constructed illegally.
Investigation revealed that Bhandari and Arya, the main accused, had a dispute over something, following which the three accused pushed her into a barrage.
Speaking to ANI, the victim's mother urged the people of Uttarakhand to support their family in seeking capital punishment for those accused in the case. She said, 'May the criminals be sentenced to death...I appeal to the public of Uttarakhand to keep on supporting us and come to the Kotdwar court to boost our morale.'
The hearing of the case began in January 2023 in the ADJ court in Kotdwar. The prosecution filed a 500-page chargesheet in the court. In a trial that lasted nearly two years, the court examined 47 witnesses out of the 97 witnesses listed.
(With agency inputs)
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Indian Express
a day ago
- Indian Express
Ankita Bhandari case becomes Congress-BJP battleground in Uttarakhand
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Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Key witness shot in Deoria, two days before court hearing
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New Indian Express
4 days ago
- New Indian Express
Will challenge lower court verdict in HC, seek death penalty for convicts: Ankita Bhandari's parents
DEHRADUN: A bigger battle is yet to be fought to get the death penalty for the three men who killed our daughter, said Soni Devi, the mother of Ankita Bhandari who was murdered by a resort owner and his two employees in Uttarakhand in 2022. Hours after a district court in Kotwar on Friday sentenced the three men to rigorous life imprisonment in the case, Devi said that she was not satisfied with the lower court's verdict but it must have given some peace to the soul of her daughter. A bigger battle is yet to be fought so that the killers get the death penalty and people think a thousand times before doing this to anyone's daughter, said Devi as she broke into tears while talking to reporters after the verdict. Additional District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi convicted resort owner Pulkit Arya and his two employees Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta and sentenced them to life imprisonment The court also imposed a fine of Rs 72,000 on Arya and Rs 62,000 on each of the other two accused, Special Public Prosecutor Avnish Negi. Ankita (19), who worked as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort located in Yamkeshwar of Pauri district, was murdered on September 18, 2022 by Arya, Bhaskar and Gupta.
