Ankita Bandari Murder: Mother Demands BJP Leader's Arrest

The Ankita Bandari case has taken a new turn with the victim’s mother demanding for the arrest of BJP general secretary Ajay Kumar. He was allegedly the VIP whose name appeared on the investigation of the case. The mother wanted Renu Bisht, the local BJP MLA of Uttarakhand, claiming him to be the one ordered to erase evidences from Ankita’s room at Vanantra Resort, where she worked as a receptionist.

Soni Devi, Ankita’s mother, alleged that Ajay Kumar’s name surfaced in the statements recorded by witnesses during the probe into the case, and the Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami must take action against him.

In a video statement, Ankita’s mother said, “Arrest Ajay Kumar for it is clear that his name surfaced in the probe as the VIP who visited the resort. Also, arrest MLA Renu Bisht, and Pramod Kumar, the then SDM, on whose order, Ankita’s room was erased by a JCB driver”.

She said she felt betrayed by the inaction of the state government. She added that Pushkar Singh Dami has not done anything to ensure justice to her daughter Ankita, but made false promises. Soni Devi asked why the Dhami government has not taken any action against Renu Bisht and Pramod Kumar “even as the JCB driver made a statement that he erased the room on their order”.

Ankita, the 19-year-old girl was killed in September 2022, allegedly by the resort owner, Pulkit Arya, and two of his employees, namely Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta. Pulkit Arya is the sone of senior RSS leader in Haridwar. All the three accused was arrested by the police and the duty of probe into the situation was given to Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was led by senior IPS officer Renuka Devi.

As per report, the accused lured Ankita, who worked as a receptionist at the Vanantara Resort, to join them on an outing and pushed her into Chilla Barrage on Ganga River Canal. Her body was recovered seven days after she was gone missing. The Resort is located at the Ganga Bhogpur area of the Yamkeshwar assembly constituency, which was represented by BJP MLA Renu Bisht.

According to Ankita’s WhatsApp texts to her friends, that was recovered by police, she was being forced to do flesh trade by the accused in the guise of giving “extra services” to the VIP visitors of the resort. Eyewitnesses and other employees of the resort told police that a VIP had visited the resort on the same day Ankita was beaten up by Pulkit Arya, and was taken to the barrage along with other accused. On the other hand, BJP denied the claims made by Ankita’s mother Soni Devi, and said that the opposition was involving in character assassination of its leaders.