The Uttarakhand Police, which is investigating the horrible Ankita Bhandari murder, announced on Monday that a forensic team had already collected evidence from culprit Pulkit Arya’s Vanatara resort in Rishikesh before unlawful constructions were dismantled using bulldozers.
“Even before the bulldozers started on Vanatara Resort, the forensic team had collected all the evidence present there, after examining the resort closely. All the evidence found there during the forensic investigation is safe and analysis of that evidence is underway,” DIG P Renuka Devi, in charge of the SIT probing the Ankita Bhandari murder case, told ANI. Protests in various parts of the state were reported after 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari was murdered. Expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya is an accused in the case. The body of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari was recovered on September 24 from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh.
The act provoked widespread indignation, with irate locals setting fire to the resort. Previously, areas of the resort were razed by local officials who claimed they were illegally built.
The resort being set ablaze, as well as the earlier bulldozer action, had raised concerns that vital evidence had been destroyed.
Previously, three people were detained, including Pulkit Arya, after they admitted to pushing Ankita into the canal following an incident.
On Sunday, the SIT told ANI that Bhandari’s Whatsapp chats were also being investigated. DIG PR Devi stated that Ankita’s WhatsApp messages, which have surfaced, are also being investigated.
Anger over the horrific crime poured onto streets in other parts of Uttarakhand as well as locals jammed the bus station in Pauri. Protestors also gheraoed District Magistrate’s office in Pauri.
In the aftermath of the alleged murder, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami instructed the officials to ensure “better law and order” in the state and also to keep a close watch on the anti-social elements who are “disturbing the peaceful environment”.
