The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expelled Vinod Arya and Ankit Arya, the father and brother of primary accused Pulkit Arya in the Ankita Bhandari murder case in Uttarakhand. This comes after Uttarakhand police arrested Pulkit Arya and two staff of the resort he owns on allegations of murdering Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old receptionist at the same resort.
In a letter dated September 24, Rajendra Singh Bisht, State General Secretary of BJP shared this information. In the letter, Rajendra Singh stated that on directions of State President Dr Mahendra Bhat, Dr Vinod Arya and Dr Ankit Arya are expelled from the party with immediate effect.
As per reports, the angry locals set fire to the resort after the incident. This happened when the resort was already under demolition on the instructions of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. The CM has also ordered all the district magistrates to take appropriate action against all such unlawfully operating resorts in the state.
The Chief Minister has ordered an investigation of all state resorts. He emphasised that information on employee working conditions at hotels, resorts, and guest houses around the state should be gathered and that complaints in this regard should be taken seriously. Following the arrest of three people in the Ankita Bhandari case yesterday (September 23), CM Dhami stated that such crimes will be pursued strictly.
Ankita Bhandari murder case
Three people were arrested by the Uttarakhand Police on Friday, September 23, in connection with the murder case of Ankita Bhandari, who vanished from a Pauri district resort five days earlier. The three people who were detained have been identified as resort manager Ankit, Saurabh, and Pulkit Arya, the son of former state politician Vinod Arya.
Ankita apparently had a receptionist role at Pulkit Arya’s Vanantra resort in Ganga Bhojpur, a property in the Yamkeshwar Vidhan Sabha. She was reported missing for five days before the news of her murder broke. The police had launched an investigation after the girl’s family reported a missing case and feared murder.
According to the perpetrators, Ankita was murdered following an altercation during which she refused the resort owner’s demand for sexual favours for himself and his visitors at the property.
The three accused were questioned by police, who testified that Ankita Bhandari was killed. The three suspects, according to ASP Shekhar Suyal, killed the girl and dumped her into the Rishikesh Chila barrage.