Ankita Bhandari, 19, who worked as a receptionist at a resort, was murdered in September last year.
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Uttarakhand government to file a status report on the probe into the murder of a 19-year-old woman who worked as a receptionist at a resort owned by the son of a sacked BJP leader. Rishikesh.
A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagaratna, which was hearing a petition filed by a journalist and family members of deceased Ankita Bhandari, seeking a CBI probe into the matter, asked Deputy Advocate General Jatinder Kumar Sethi to file a status report. Said to Regarding the investigation done so far.
The victim worked as a receptionist at the Vanantara resort near Rishikesh and was allegedly killed by its owner Pulkit Arya, son of a BJP leader Vinod Arya, and two of his accomplices after she offered “extra services” to a VIP. had refused to yield to their pressure to give. Resort tour.
Vinod Arya was expelled from the BJP amid growing protests against Bhandari’s murder. Three accused, including Arya, are facing murder charges in the case. During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners raised several questions on the manner of investigation and claimed that there were several lapses in the investigation conducted by the State Police.
Sethi said that despite such petitions doing good work and charging the three accused under sections 302 (murder), 354A (sexual assault) of the IPC and section 5(1) of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the state police lowers the morale of
He stressed on doing a professional job with scientific and forensic equipment and maintaining transparency in the investigation, which was conducted by the SIT headed by a DIG level woman IPS officer with two additional SP level members and technical support team, The SIT had collected extensive evidence. Sethi said statements of seven key witnesses have been recorded before a magistrate and digital evidence including CCTV footage, mobile phone data, WhatsApp chats etc. have been collected.
“The SIT has made a strong case against the accused and had also sought their narco analysis and polygraph test, which is an issue pending before the High Court,” he said, and issued notice to the court on the plea. urged not to do so and to voluntarily file the status report of the investigation. The bench fixed March 27 for further hearing of the matter.
The petition filed by a journalist and the parents of the deceased has challenged the December 21, 2022 order of the Uttarakhand High Court rejecting their plea for a CBI probe.
The High Court had said that an SIT is already probing the matter and it should not be doubted.
It had also said that no VIP is being protected as alleged in the petition.
In the petition before the High Court, it was alleged that on the day her body was recovered, her room was ransacked and her post-mortem was conducted without the presence of any lady doctor.
In view of the growing anger of the people, the state government had ordered the demolition of the resort.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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