Rishikesh<\/a>. After she went \u201cmissing\u201d on September 19, Ankita\u2019s parents lodged a complaint at a revenue police outpost as they did not find her in her room on Monday morning.<\/p>\nRevenue police Sub-Inspector Vivek Kumar at Ganga Bhogpur Talla allegedly delayed filing a report immediately in the matter and made Ankita\u2019s parents wait for two hours and misbehave with them. Talla has been suspended, officials said.<\/p>\n
After investigation, it was found that the three accused \u2014 Pulkit Arya, who owns the resort in Yamkeshwar block here, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta \u2013 confessed to having killed Ankita. They threw her body into the Cheela Canal, Pauri Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Shekhar Chandra Suyal told news agency PTI. Initially, they tried to mislead police but they confessed to the crime when they were interrogated sternly, he said.<\/p>\n
Pulkit Arya, Bhaskar, and Gupta were arrested after they confessed to having killed the woman. They have been sent to 14-day judicial custody by Kotdwar court.<\/p>\n
Ankita had been missing for the last few days, police said. The case raised an uproar among locals, who demanded \u2018bulldozer justice\u2019 from Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.\u00a0 CM Dhami also announced that an SIT under Deputy Inspector General of Police P Renuka Devi has been formed to investigate the case.<\/p>\n
Pulkit Arya is the son of Vinod Arya, a BJP leader from Haridwar. Vinod Arya was formerly the chairman of the Uttarakhand Mati Kala Board with a state minister\u2019s rank.<\/p>\n
Vinod Arya was a Minister of State in the previous BJP government headed by Trivendra Singh Rawat. Vinod does not hold any post in the Uttarakhand BJP at present, state party unit media in-charge Manveer Chauhan said.<\/p>\n
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami described the incident as \u201cextremely sad and unfortunate\u201d, and said those responsible would be given \u201cstrict punishment\u201d. \u201cThe police are doing their work and justice to the victim will be ensured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a massive protest erupted in Rishikesh on Friday during the transport of the accused in the 19-year-old receptionist\u2019s murder case. Locals gheraoed the police vehicle that was carrying the accused and also reportedly thrashed them.<\/p>\n
Several local residents also attempted to vandalize the resort but were stopped by the police, officers said.<\/p>\n
Women also gheraoed the police vehicle that was carrying the accused in the Ankita Bhandari murder case<\/p>\n
Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar on Friday said the case was transferred to the Laxman Jhula police and within 24 hours all three accused were arrested.<\/p>\n
In a video statement, Additional SP (Kotdwar) Shekhar Suyal said the case was forwarded to the Laxman Jhula station by senior officials after new information came to light.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found that what was mentioned in the missing report was not what actually happened. The resort employees\u2019 statements did not match, the circumstantial evidence told us differently\u2026 the room from where the girl allegedly went missing did not have any signs of someone having slept there,\u201d the Additional SP said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe traced the phones, checked CCTV footage, and took statements. We confirmed that four persons left the resort on the said date and only three returned. Our next step was to arrest the three persons. Initially, they presented themselves as complainants and claimed that they, along with the girl, went (to Rishikesh on September 18) and returned safely. They claimed that the girl had dinner at night and slept alone in a room from where she went missing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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