Ankita Bhandari Murder Case: Uttarakhand Court Sentences Resort Owner, 2 Others To Life Imprisonment
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Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar, and Ankit Gupta were found guilty of the 2022 murder of Ankita Bhandari by a court in Uttarakhand. All three were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Protests in support for justice for Ankita Bhandari (Social Media)
An Uttarakhand court on Friday convicted three persons accused in the murder case of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari in 2022, and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
The three accused, Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar, and Ankit Gupta, were found guilty of the charges against them in the case in the Additional District and Sessions Judge Court in Kotdwar.
As the court pronounced the judgment, it also imposed fines on the three accused under various sections.
It also announced Rs 4 lakh in compensation to Ankita Bhandari’s family.
The case pertains to Ankita, whose body was recovered from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh on September 24, 2022.
She was reported missing for at least six days before the officials found her body.
Ankita Bhandari worked as a receptionist at a resort run by Pulkit Arya, the son of expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vinod Arya.
Pulkit Arya was arrested for allegedly pushing her into the canal following an altercation.
Two more people – Ankit Gupta and Saurabh Bhaskar, were also arrested in the case.
On December 4, the Uttarakhand Police said that the investigation into the Ankita Bhandari murder case was nearly complete, with just the narco tests of the accused remaining.
Earlier, the three accused had refused to undergo narco and polygraph tests, citing that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) did not explain why it wanted to conduct narco and polygraph tests after filing the charge sheet.
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