Candlelight vigils and a looming protest: 3 years on, Ankita Bhandari murder case continues to put heat on Uttarakhand govt

Multiple candlelight marches were held in different parts of Uttarakhand on New Year’s Eve in memory of Ankita Bhandari and to demand a probe into allegations of the involvement of senior BJP leaders in her death, mounting pressure on the state’s Pushkar Singh Dhami government, which is anticipating a larger protest on January 4.

While many gathered in Pauri Garhwal’s Paithani on Wednesday, Congress conducted a march in Dehradun with its National Secretary of the Communications Department, Vaibhav Walia, in attendance.

Uttarakhand has been rocked by a fresh set of allegations in the Bhandari murder case after former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore’s wife, Urmila Sanawar, claimed that a VIP who sought sexual favours from Bhandari was a senior leader called “Gattu”. She released an audio clip in which Rathore purportedly identifies the VIPs as BJP national general secretary Dushyant Gautam and another senior party leader. Rathore later claimed the clip was AI-generated and accused Sanawar of defaming the party. Gautam has denied any role in the incident.

The issue has united groups across the state, largely due to the government’s response — or lack thereof — and the precarity tied to employment prospects in the informal sector in Uttarakhand, with Bhandari’s murder symbolising the erosion of women’s rights in a state otherwise known for women’s decisive participation in the public sphere.

Bhandari was allegedly killed for refusing to render sexual favours to a VIP by the manager of the Vanantara resort, Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya. The body of the 19-year-old was recovered from a canal in Rishikesh on September 24, 2022 — six days after she was reported missing. Vinod Arya was expelled from the party following the murder in 2022.

A demonstration at the chief minister’s residence on January 4 will see Bhandari’s family, along with civil society organisations, including the Uttarakhand Mahila Manch, in attendance. A sustained movement has shaped up following Sanawar’s statements, with citizens demanding that a CBI probe be recommended into the incident.

Allegations regarding the involvement of a “VIP” have been prevalent ever since the incident in 2022, and were raised again in May last year when, during a court hearing against the three accused who have now been sentenced, the prosecution had indicated the presence of a VIP. The prosecution said the chats, from the time Bhandari joined the resort until the date of the incident, showed she was disturbed by the accused’s behaviour and “their obscene proposals” for “extra services”, prompting her to want to leave.

In one chat, she wrote: “I am poor, but will I sell myself for Rs 10,000?” Apart from murder, the accused were also convicted for destroying evidence, sexual harassment and under the Immoral Trafficking Act.

Indresh Maikhuri, a Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation Central Committee member and state secretary, Uttarakhand, who has also announced the party’s participation in the January 4 Dehradun Chalo protest, said that the anger refuses to die even though three years have passed since the incident.

“People think that justice has been denied. The fact that Ankita was killed for refusing to provide ‘special services’ for a VIP is openly acknowledged. This has been noted by the judge who sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. As the probe did not involve the VIP angle, there is a deep sense of injustice and injury that justice has not been served,” he said.

“The incident has birthed a fear in people that it has become difficult for women, and that despite laws for protection from sexual harassment in workplaces, a 19-year-old girl was killed 20 days after she set out to earn,” Maikhuri said.

Pulkit Arya, the main accused, is also known to have courted controversies multiple times, including attempted murder, but had been saved by political patronage, said the leader. “He was so drunk with power and a habitual criminal. His father’s position as a former state minister helped him get away and emboldened him to commit a murder,” said Maikhuri.

Advocate Chandrakala of the Uttarakhand Mahila Manch said that the probe had several setbacks. “Ankita’s room in the resort was bulldozed right after the incident. Pieces of evidence, including a bedsheet in her room, her phone and that of the main accused, were never recovered. We had insisted that Renu Bisht, the area MLA who ordered the bulldozing, be made an accused, but that did not materialise,” Chandrakala, who also moved the HC with the same request, said.

She added, “We went to the High Court seeking a CBI inquiry, and later to the Supreme Court, but it was dismissed. Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves has also tried to fight for justice, but none of us can go beyond the decision of the courts.”

Meanwhile, Ankita’s father, Virender Bhandari, said that they had always insisted that a VIP was involved.

“We will protest against the government until they accept our demand for a CBI probe into this. We have decided to see it through to the end this time. We will move an application in the court, if need be,” he said. Ankita’s mother, Soni Devi, took ill after the new set of allegations and has gone to her house, says Bhandari. “We, however, have a rekindled hope that this time, the powerful people involved in her murder will be proven guilty,” he said.

In September, the last time the state saw widespread protests in connection with a paper leak in the Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission exam, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had recommended a CBI probe — a far cry from his initial comments that the leak was a form of “nakal jihad”. The Ankita Bhandari protests could similarly provide ammunition for the Opposition, which will participate in the upcoming Dehradun Chalo protests.

Congress’s Vaibhav Walia said on Wednesday that with every new revelation, the state government is being further exposed.

“This government appears not to be working to deliver justice, but to protect the accused. Ankita Bhandari has today become the voice of every daughter of Uttarakhand, and this fight is not of any single party, but a struggle of justice versus the misuse of power,” he said.