Police personnel detain the mother of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari, who was murdered in Uttarakhand in 2022 (Img: @INCongress)
New Delhi: The 2022 murder of 19-year-old receptionist Ankita Bhandari has returned to the centre of national political debate, with her parents taking their demand for justice to India Gate in Delhi. The family’s protest against Dushyant Kumar Gautam’s appointment as Sikkim Governor, along with the detention of Ankita’s parents in the early hours of Thursday, has renewed questions surrounding the alleged VIP angle in the case.
The controversy has drawn in Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who met Ankita’s parents during their sit-in on Wednesday evening. The family has demanded that Gautam’s appointment be put on hold until the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged VIP connection is completed.
Ankita, a resident of Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district, worked as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort in Yamkeshwar, near Rishikesh. She was murdered on September 18, 2022, and her body was recovered from the Chilla canal a few days later.
Resort owner Pulkit Arya, the son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, and two resort employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, were arrested in connection with the crime. The prosecution alleged that Ankita was killed after refusing to provide “extra services” to a guest at the resort.
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In May 2025, a court in Kotdwar convicted all three men and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Their subsequent bail applications were rejected by the Uttarakhand High Court in August 2026.
Despite the convictions, questions about a possible VIP connection continued to surround the case. Ankita’s parents have repeatedly demanded that the alleged role of an unidentified VIP be investigated.
The issue gained fresh momentum in December 2025, when actress Urmila Sanawar, who has claimed to be the wife of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, released an audio clip that allegedly suggested a political connection to the case.
Rathore dismissed the recording as AI-generated. The clip triggered protests in Uttarakhand and demands for an independent investigation into its authenticity and the allegations it contained.
In December 2025, Haridwar Police formed a special investigation team to examine the audio recording and related claims. Uttarakhand authorities subsequently ordered a CBI investigation in January 2026, and a fresh FIR was registered.
Dushyant Kumar Gautam, who served as the BJP’s Uttarakhand in-charge from November 2020 to August 2026, has not been named as an accused in the cases linked to Ankita’s murder. He has filed a case against Rathore, Sanawar, political parties and other individuals over allegations linking him to the crime.
Ankita’s parents have demanded that Gautam’s appointment as Sikkim Governor be put on hold until the CBI completes its investigation into the alleged VIP angle.
The family believes that questions surrounding the alleged VIP connection must be addressed despite the convictions in the murder case. Ankita’s father has also sought an investigation under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge.
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The demand has become a political flashpoint in Uttarakhand, which is scheduled to hold Assembly elections in early 2027. Opposition parties have questioned the appointment, while the state government has maintained that the judicial process in the murder case reached its conclusion with the convictions and sentences of the three men.
On Wednesday evening, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met Ankita’s parents at India Gate and joined their sit-in.
Congress leaders expressed support for the family’s demand and called for the alleged VIP angle to be investigated. The protest continued after Rahul Gandhi left the site.
At around 4 am on Thursday, Delhi Police detained Ankita’s parents and removed protesters from the area. The parents were later released. The police action drew criticism from Congress leaders and renewed attention to the family’s campaign.
The convictions of Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta established criminal responsibility for Ankita’s murder in court. However, the separate allegations concerning an unidentified VIP have continued to fuel public debate.
The CBI investigation is now central to the family’s demand for answers about those allegations. As the dispute over Gautam’s appointment continues, Ankita’s parents have vowed to keep pressing for further scrutiny.
The case has once again become a major political issue, with the family’s protest bringing the unresolved questions surrounding the alleged VIP angle back into the national spotlight.
