Illegal structure razed or evidence wiped out?

Draft autopsy shows drowning as cause of death of Ankita Bhandari, who worked at a now-razed resort owned by Uttarakhand BJP leader’s son

The Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway was blocked for several hours in Uttarakhand’s Shrinagar area on Sunday by people demanding justice for a 19-year-old woman receptionist killed near Rishikesh allegedly by her employer, a BJP leader’s son. Ankita’s has family questioned the local administration’s move to raze the resort where she worked. They said it was done to destroy evidence.

Ankita Bhandari’s body was found in the Cheela canal close to Rishikesh on Saturday, six days after her parents found her missing from her room. A provisional report said the she died due to drowning and that her body had signs of injury caused by blunt force. As the protesters sat on a dharna on the highway on Sunday, police tried to pacify them by bringing Ankita’s father Virendra Singh Bhandari to the spot to talk to them. They demanded that the perpetrators be hanged immediately. 

Ankita worked at the Vanantara resort in Pauri district’s Yamkeshwar block owned by Haridwar BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya. Pulkit and two other employees have been arrested in the case. Virendra Bhandari told the crowd that the police were cooperating with him and investigations were being carried out properly. The protesters, however, claimed that he was making the statement under pressure from the administration.

Shops in Shrinagar kept shutters down in protest against the murder. Ankita Bhandari’s village Shrikot is about 23 km from Shrinagar, where her body has been kept in a mortuary after an autopsy at AIIMS, Rishikesh. Her father earlier said he was not satisfied with the provisional post-mortem report, and had refused to claim Ankita’s body for her last rites. He later relented.

Accused influential

Accused Pulkit Arya’s father Vinod Arya is the former chairman of Uttarakhand Mati Kala Board and the BJP Other Backward Classes Morcha’s national executive. Pulkit’s brother Ankit is the vice president of state OBC Commission.

6
No of days after which her body was found

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