Opposition parties in Uttarakhand staged a protest demanding a CBI probe into the Ankita Bhandari murder case on Sunday (January 4, 2026), a day after police said no “VIP” involved in the case had been found.
Workers of the Congress, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), Mahila Manch, Left parties and social organizations gathered at the Parade Ground in Dehradun and marched towards the Chief Minister’s residence, reiterating their demand that the case be handed over to the CBI to reveal the name of a “VIP” involved in the murder case.
During the protest, opposition party workers held placards with slogans such as “Give justice to Ankita”, “No more delay, surround the Chief Minister” and “Who is the real culprit, who is silent in Delhi” and raised anti-government slogans.
They said the protest would continue until their demands were met.
Indresh Maikhuri, state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), who urged people to join the protest march, said that the statement of Haridwar SP (Rural) Shekhar Suyal, who is involved in the investigation of the murder case, that no “VIP” was involved in the case could not be accepted.
Mr. Maikhuri said that in its judgment delivered in May 2025, the Additional District and Sessions Court at Kotdwar sentenced Pulkit Arya, owner of Vanantra Resort in Pauri district, and his two employees, Ankit Gupta and Saurabh Bhaskar, to life imprisonment for murder.
It was stated that the motive for the offense was to refuse to provide “special services” to “VIPs”.
He said, “Now, if police officer Mr. Suyal is denying the involvement of VIPs, it means that you are removing the very motive of the crime. You are not arresting those whose names appear in this case, but instead you are paving the way for the release of those who have already been convicted.” Maikhuri said their demand is that the case be investigated by the CBI under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge so that the VIPs can be identified.
Ankita Bhandari (19), who worked as a receptionist at the Vanantra resort in Yamkeshwar, Pauri district, was murdered on 18 September 2022. After the case came to light, the anger of local people spilled into the streets, prompting the state government to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the matter.
Mr. Suyal, who was serving as Additional Superintendent of Police in Pauri at the time of the murder and was a member of the SIT, said on Saturday that no “VIP” was involved in the case.
Currently, Mr. Suyal is the Superintendent of Police (Rural), Haridwar.
Mr. Suyal told the media here that the “VIP” mentioned in the chat between Ankita and her friend Pushpdeep was Dharmendra Kumar alias Pradhan, a resident of Noida, who stopped at the resort for a short time on September 16 for a meal.
He said that after the mention of ‘VIP’ came to light, the statements of Pushpdeep were recorded three or four times and then the statement of the court under Section 164 was also recorded in which he said that when he went to the resort on the 16th, a person was present there with two or three other people. He also described his appearance.
Mr. Suyal said that the resort staff also confirmed Pushpdeep’s statement.
He said, “On investigation, the police got hold of this person and found that he had spoken to someone about looking for land in the area, who took him to Vanantra Resort for food and stayed there for only two-and-a-half to three hours.” The police officer said that Pushpdeep also confirmed that this is the same person he had seen on September 16.
He said that according to the SIT investigation, it was the end of ‘VIP terminology’ but even then the team was looking into every possibility expressed on social media or other platforms and every person who booked or visited the resort between September 18 and 22 was being investigated from all angles.
However, he said: “We had no significant information that there was a person named VIP.” Mr. Suyal said that during the investigation, the Uttarakhand High Court judgment also made it clear that no attempt was made to protect any influential person in the SIT investigation and that the investigation was moving in the right direction.
Actress Urmila Sanawar, who claims to be the wife of former Uttarakhand MLA Suresh Rathore, recently posted on social media her videos and audio recordings of her alleged conversations with Rathore, in which she claims the ‘VIP’ in the Ankita murder case is a BJP leader named ‘Gattu’.
In another video, Ms. Sanawar also revealed Gattu’s name, creating a stir in the state’s politics.
Published – 04 Jan 2026 20:15 IST
