A local court in Uttarakhand on Friday convicted the three accused in the 2022 murder case of a 19-year-old receptionist in Pauri district.
A local court in Uttarakhand on Friday convicted the three accused in the 2022 murder case of a 19-year-old receptionist in Pauri district. The case had made national headlines after the local people came out in protest over the murder of Ankita Bhandari, who worked as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort located in Yamkeshwar of Pauri district.
Ankita was murdered by the resort operator Pulkit Arya, along with his two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta on September 18, 2022.
The case had taken a sensational turn as Pulkit Arya is the son of Vinod Arya, a BJP leader and the local people had taken to the streets to protest over it. The BJP had shown Vinod Arya the door after the controversy erupted and the Uttarakhand government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter.
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The body of Ankita Bhandari was recovered from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh on September 24. She was reported missing for at least six days before the officials found her body. An SIT headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police P Renuka Devi was initially probing the case.
The first hearing of the case started on January 30, 2023, in the ADJ Court in Kotdwar. After the SIT investigation, a 500-page chargesheet was filed in the court by the prosecution regarding this murder. After the charges were framed against the three accused of this sensational murder, Vanantra Resort owner Pulkit Arya, his employee Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, the testimony of the prosecution started from March 28, 2023.
In the hearing that lasted for about two years and eight months, 47 witnesses, including the investigator, were examined in the court on behalf of the prosecution. However, the SIT had made 97 witnesses in this case, out of which only 47 important witnesses were produced in the court.
