Ankita Bhandari murder case and the figures behind the latest allegations: Who are Urmila Sanawar, Suresh Rathore?

After more than three years, the Ankita Bhandari murder case has again rocked Uttarakhand politics, with the ruling BJP forced into a corner following allegations levelled by a woman, Urmila Sanawar, who claims to be the second wife of former party MLA Suresh Rathore.

Sanawar, who has had 10 cases registered against her in the last two years, has uploaded multiple videos online tying senior BJP leader Dushyant Gautam to the murder. Last month, she played an audio clip of a purported conversation with Rathore in which he allegedly identified Gautam as the “VIP” who was present at the Vanantara resort in Rishikesh the day Bhandari, a 19-year-old receptionist who had started work there less than a month earlier, was killed in 2022. Bhandari’s body was found six days after she went missing, and last year, the resort’s manager Pulkit Arya, the son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, was convicted of the murder.

On Monday, Gautam, the BJP national secretary and former SC Morcha president, moved the Delhi High Court, accusing Sanawar, former Jwalapur MLA Rathore, and Opposition parties of defaming him. The court on Wednesday directed the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party to remove within 24 hours social media posts linking Gautam to the murder. Since the videos were posted, multiple FIRs have been registered in Haridwar and Dehradun, the latest on Gautam’s complaint at the Dalanwala police station in Dehradun.

Sanawar is an actress from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and has acted in several TV serials and first met Rathore in 2022, when he was the acharya of the Ravidas Vishwa Peeth in Haridwar and was active in Dalit politics. In her videos and interviews, Sanawar has said that by then she had separated from her husband at the time. She claims to have become Rathore’s disciple, posting videos with him and referring to him as “guru ji”. The two even discussed producing a TV serial together, according to Sanawar.

Ankita Bhandari (L), Police stop members of various organisations during a protest march towards the Uttarakhand CM’s residence, demanding a CBI probe into the murder case. (PTI)

In an interview, Sanawar alleged that Rathore met her for lunch in Dehradun, where she was allegedly drugged and raped. She claimed he later threatened to release an objectionable video, following which she had no other option but to marry him in Nepal in 2023. However, Rathore has denied this, accusing her of blackmailing him. As Sanawar continued to post videos accusing Rathore of blackmail, the BJP leader said she was just an actress working in one of his films.

Sanawar consistently maintained they were married and had been together for three years. In June 2025, the two held a press conference in which Rathore, for the first time, acknowledged they were married. This was followed by his ouster from the BJP for six years for allegedly violating the Uniform Civil Code, which prohibits polygamy. However, he later denied it, saying that the photographs were from a movie he was producing. In November, shortly before the fresh round of allegations, the former BJP leader posted a photograph on Facebook with his first wife, Ravindra Kaur, saying she was the only person he was married to. He accused Sanawar of harassing him for two years through her statements. Sanawar subsequently posted a video accusing Rathore of sexual harassment. A few days later, she uploaded the first videos that have rocked Uttarakhand politics.

Since then, she has been accused under the provisions of the IT Act in four FIRs. In at least six cases earlier, she has been accused of transmitting “obscene material”, outraging religious sentiments, and extortion, among other charges. For instance, in a May 2025 FIR, she was accused of posting objectionable comments about lord Valmiki, allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Valmiki community. Two months earlier, Rathore’s daughter had filed a complaint against Sanawar and another man for allegedly circulating her objectionable photographs online and attempting to extort money from her.

A year before the 2022 Assembly elections, which he lost as the sitting MLA from the seat, Rathore was accused of rape. When the police did not file an FIR based on the accuser’s complaint, she approached a local court that ordered the police to register the case. Rathore claimed the woman had earlier been arrested in an extortion case and was attempting to defame him. The woman later approached the High Court seeking police protection. He had sought that the case be quashed at the High Court, alleging ulterior motives and subsequently, the police closed the file, citing lack of evidence.

People hold a candlelight march in Dehradun, seeking justice for Ankita Bhandari whose body was found in a canal in Rishikesh on September 24, 2022.

With a stint in the party lasting around 40 years, the 63-year-old former district BJP president unsuccessfully contested from Bhagwanpur constituency in the 2012 Assembly election. In 2017, he contested from the SC-reserved Jwalapur, and as the acharya of the Ravidas Peeth, mobilised the community that helped him get elected as an MLA. Rathore, also a businessman, owned a gas station, as per his affidavit, and has an MA in Political Science from a university in Tamil Nadu. He is also the national president of Shri Guru Ravidas Akhara.

Amid the allegations against Gautam, Rathore has been accused of orchestrating attempts to defame the BJP leader to sideline him from the Ravidasia community and strengthen his own grip. One FIR, registered at Bahadrabad police station in Haridwar on December 24, alleged that Gautam was the victim of a “conspiracy” to defame him, and said “false and baseless” allegations levelled by Rathore and Sanawar had led to “widespread anger against them across the entire Ravidas community, creating an atmosphere of enmity and unrest”.

Another FIR registered at Jhabrera police station in the city on December 26 accused the two of creating and circulating false videos and causing serious damage to Gautam’s reputation in the Ravidasia community.

The former MLA has sought protection from arrest and filed an interim relief application at the Uttarakhand High Court on Tuesday. The court ordered that no coercive action should be taken against Rathore.