New Delhi: A fact-finding team of a slew of women’s rights organisations has raised doubts about the police investigation into the murder of Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old woman who worked at a resort near Rishikesh and was allegedly killed as she refused “special services” – a euphemism for sex work – demanded by a “VIP guest”.
Bhandari was allegedly murdered by Pulkit Arya, the owner of the resort, and his two associates. The job at the resort was Ankita’s first and she had been working there for just over a fortnight. Her body was recovered from a canal near the resort on September 24, 2022. Arya is the son of Vinod Arya, a BJP leader who was expelled from the party in light of the allegations.
The fact-finding team was helmed by members of the Uttarakhand Mahila Manch and involved 30 representatives from women’s groups, mass organisations and women’s fronts, human rights organisations, lawyers and tourism experts from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka, according to the report. The team visited the site of crime and interviewed the concerned people on October 27-28 and released the report on February 7.
The report claimed that there was “complete breakdown” of the criminal justice system. “The story of the murder of Ankita shows a complete breakdown of the criminal justice system at the most primary level. Several irregularities were committed with malicious intent from [September 19], when Pulkit falsely reported that Ankita had gone missing,” it says.
Also Read: What the Ankita Bhandari Case Tells Us About the Status of Young Women in Uttarakhand
This began, the report says, with the revenue police delaying the registering of the report, which was done 48 hours after her death, on September 20. “And then for another 48 hours, nothing happened and only on the 4th day the case was transferred to the regular police in Lakshman Jhula” on September 22.
The activists also said that Ankita’s father could get a report filed only after running from pillar to post for two days. It also said that authorities at various levels had refused to take the complaint. Questioning the reasons for the delay in the arrest of the accused, the report said, “The arrests only happened on the 5th day, which was [September 23], and the body of Ankita was recovered from the canal where it was stuck near the barrage gate only on [September 24], the 6th day after she was killed.”
In today’s time, such “inordinate delays” in cases of such an urgent nature show a “despicable dereliction of duty” on the part of authorities, the report says.
The resort where Ankita was allegedly killed was partly pulled down with a bulldozer by a BJP MLA Renu Bisht. The team questioned at whose behest the resort was demolished – who granted the permission to do so – and why did the police not seal the scene of the crime immediately after the murder.
Apart from Pulkit Arya, the other two accused include resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta. They have been booked under IPC’s sections 302 (murder), 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender).
The report also questioned why the police have not named the ‘VIP’ to whom Ankita was pressured to provide “special services”. “The police version, according to testimonies and examining the online and offline booking and visitors register, is that the VIP classification was for any person staying in the Presidential suite,” the report said. Even the former chief minister of Uttarakhand, Harish Rawat, staged a dharna making the demand to reveal the identity of the VIP guest.
The team urged that the main witness in the case – employees of the resort and a friend of Ankita – should be provided round-the-clock security by the police. The report also raises questions about the working of the state women’s commission and the police.
It may be mentioned that the Uttarakhand high court has turned down a plea by Bhandari’s family demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The family had expressed no confidence in the investigation being carried out by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police. The court found the SIT investigation satisfactory.
TOI, which accessed the chargesheet, reported about “pressure” to provide “special services” to the VIP guest. It quoted an SIT officer as saying that Ankita wanted to “escape” the resort as it was a “den of vice.”