Ankita Bhandari Murder Case : Supreme Court Seeks Status Report On Probe From Uttarakhand Govt

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Uttarakhand government to file a status report on the investigation carried out in the murder of Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old woman receptionist in a resort, owned by the son of a now sacked BJP leader.

A Bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna passed the order while hearing a plea filed by a journalist and family members of Bhandari seeking an investigation monitored by Central Bureau of Investigation. The matter has been posted for next hearing on March 27. The plea challenged an order of the Uttarakhand High Court dated December 21, 2022 by which it had dismissed their petition for a CBI probe.

Ankita was allegedly murdered in September, last year by the son of a former BJP leader, named Pulkit Arya and his two associates, after she had refused to offer "extra services" to a VIP guest in a resort (owned by the accused).

When the matter was taken up for hearing, the counsel for the petitioners’ argued that the way the investigation was conducted was not satisfactory and further claimed there were several loopholes in the probe carried out by the state police.

Deputy Advocate General of State Jatinder Kumar Sethi, on the other hand, refuted these submissions to contend that such petitions demoralise the state police despite having done a good job and bringing charges under sections 302 (murder), 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code as well as 5(1) of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act against the accused.

He argued that the statements of seven key witnesses were recorded before the Magistrate and digital evidence including CCTV footage, mobile phone data, WhatsApp chats etc were collected during the process of investigation. The SIT even sought narco-analysis and polygraph tests of the accused. This issue is pending before the High Court, he said, while volunteering to file a status report on the probe. After going through the status report, the Court will decide to issue notice in the matter or not.

It may be noted that Ankita had been missing since 18-19 September, after which her search began and subsequently, three accused (including Pulkit) were arrested on September 23, and when questioned by the police, they allegedly confessed to having committed her murder.

On their pointing, her body was also recovered from the Chilla canal in Uttarakhand's Rishikesh on September 24. Soon after the incident, the demolition action was carried out on the resort in the presence of Renu Bisht, the BJP MLA from Yamkeshwar.

Case Title: Ashutosh Negi and Ors vs The State of Uttarakhand | SLP(Crl) No. 002622/2023 

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