Dark clouds are collected in the sky contrasted with cold, distant snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas, which once in a while showed with 50–life families that remain in Uttarakhand’s village of Srikot. It is located at a height of about 3,500 feet in the district of Pauri Garhwal, Doob Sikot stands on the side of the mountain. The harsh road leads to a village with a small infrastructure. Many houses are abandoned; Some have only women and children. Men went to look for a job in cities.
In A Yellow House, Pale With Age, Weariness, And Poverty, Soni Devi Sits in Front of the Picture of Her Daughter, Ankita, WHO WAS YUST 19 WHEN SHE CILLED Life Sentense to Three Men Accused of Ankita’s Murder: Pulkit Arya, The Son of An Erstwhile Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Uttarakhand; and his friends Saubh Baskar and Ankit Gupta.
“My daughter was one of the brightest girls in the village. She had dreams and worked hard to fulfill them,” Soni says, adding that the ankita supports her family’s four. The court did not register the family’s lawsuit to be considered the “most precious” cases, the doctrine of the Supreme Court in which the death penalty is concluded.
18 September 2022 Ankita Bhandari, who worked as a receptionist in Vanantra in Yamkeshwar, Uttarakhand, disappeared for 22 days. Her family was said the next day. The Ankit’s parents and the younger brother rushed to the police to report. The income officer who has the obligations of the police in Uttarakhand has already filed a complaint – registered with a pulkit owned by the center.
Soon the locals began to protest, encouraged friends and colleagues who said the ankita was murdered after being harassed to pay sex with an influential person. When the Uttarakhand government mounted pressure, the income police case moved to the normal police on September 22 and a special investigation team (SIT) was created. After two days of searching the police found the ankit body in the canal.
Pulkit and his friends were arrested. Soon after the postmort of the body, the MLA from Yamkeshwar, Rena Bishht, a “bulldozer action” in the resort, one of the most important places of crimes from which they should not have been gathered. The Ankity phone, the key source of evidence has never been found.
Steep climb before court
97 witnesses came to court in interventing years; BJP excluded Pulkit’s father Vinod Arya from the side; and the Patwari In-Watch (Sub-Invpector of the Income) of the case was suspended. Ankit’s parents live in fear that their son will be aimed at the powerful if they leave the village to find a job. Again, questions about the outdated system of police inherited from the British Raj, where the Ministry of Income doubled as police forces in these difficult areas.
Soni and her husband Virendra ran from Pillar for more than two and a half years to get justice. But their relief was short -term. “I realized that men are ready to question the life of the High Court. It took all our savings and more loans to get this piece of justice for my daughter. The court could not get answers to questions like the VIP for which my daughter was forced into prostitution.” When talking about the ankit and the way her life was shortened, she breaks down every few minutes.
Anuj Pundhir, Pulkit attorney, confirms that they are preparing to appeal in HC. “We had to turn to the Supreme Court to obtain copies of documents related to police investigation. The lower court constantly rejected our requests for the prohibition of witnesses for re -examination,” he says.
The doctor described Ankit’s body as pushing from a height. Through the investigation of Pulkit and his friends, they claimed that they had taken the poll for a ride because she needed the breath of fresh air because of family problems. They went on two -round tracks, walked around Rishikesh, 40 km from Yamkeshware.
Back in the resort Pulkit said that the chef said he would take Okit’s dinner to her room. The next day the staff asked to access the charger room, which is when they found it missing. After hearing the case, the court asked Pulkit to prove that the ankita had returned with them, which he could not.
Ankit’s family in their house in DOOB SRICOT, Pauri Garhwal. | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Soni talks about how there were challenges at any moment: they had little money to fight the case – agriculture is difficult in the harsh terrain. Even the sale of your land was not the possibility: “Who will buy it?” says. Their village is so far away that it performs, three bus rides and a walk to the court. As a result, they would ever arrive a few minutes late to hear. “Sometimes I would be so tired that my husband left me on the side of the road, hurried to court and picked me up on his way back,” he says. They were against rich, powerful people.
Ankit’s father remembers that the government crew had reached him and said his daughter would return soon. “Pulkit Arya is the son of Vinoda Arya, a former Minister (Uttarakhand) of the BJP government when he was the main Minister of Trivendra Rawat (2017–2021),” he says. He adds that bullding resorts was one of the ways to protect the powerful.
“After Ankit’s death, many people in our village have asked their daughters to study and work in cities to return home. The company is fighting for the same rights for their daughter, but cannot provide it with a safe atmosphere to exercise these rights,” Soni adds.
Support systems
Uma Bhatt, the founder of Uttarakhand Mahil Manch, an organization that fights for women’s rights, stood in the family, appeared with them in court, spoke to lawyers, organized protests and took over the matter to the media.
“A” bulldozer action “was carried out to save those VIPs for which girls were forced to prostitution in this resort. The center was lit twice in fourteen days of the crime, just to destroy the evidence,” Bhatt says. He feels that it was just to spill the support of people for the family, that the case could not be suppressed despite strong political pressure.
“People blocked the input and output ways of various roads in Pauri Garhwal, as the case shook. Some even say that such protests in the villages first saw after the statehood of Uttarakhand (carved from Uttar Pradesh in 2000),” says Panwar in Panwar.
Reshma joined the protests looking for justice for the ankit. “Every girl in the hills is trying to break barriers. Also my father is a poor farmer who cannot finance my education. I worked and studied at the same time when I wanted to change my life and family. The price had the same dream,” he says.
Picture of the Bhandari Ankity on the altar at her home. | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
P. Renuka Devi, who led SIT, says that the main challenge of the investigation was to maintain the balance between the media exposure and the right and the purchase for the anger that people felt. “The police worked hard on the preparation of the accusation. Due to the integral investigation, the case came to its conclusion,” says Renuka, who is now representative of the General Inspector with the Central Office for Investigation in Rajasthan.
Among the witnesses were Ankit’s friends and colleagues who told the court that she was forced to provide “other services” to VIP to customers attending the resort and refusing. They also shared their exchange of WhatsApp with an Ankita, which once wrote that even if it were poor, it would never be sold for 10,000 GBP – money that was reportedly promised for sexual acts.
Chats WhatsApp also revealed that she told her friend that Pulkit had tried to kiss her and pushed him away. In another cottage, she said she saw customers bring sex workers to the resort. Employees testified that the ankita would have anxiety when Pulkit called her. One of the witnesses testified that Pulkit had treated her in a disproportion way. Another witness stated that he received a call from the ankity on the day he was killed. She wailed and asked him to pack her luggage so she could leave.
Policy over the dead
The main minister Pushkar Singh Dhami assured people from Uttarakhand and the family of the family that justice would be delivered. At the AO Center, as the government created a sit under the IPS officer, spoke publicly about the Swift Bulldzer event.
After the judgment, a Congress spokesman from Uttarakhand Garim Dasuni, called at a press conference in Delhi and said, “Mr. Dhami appreciated the bulldozer event in the resort, which manipulated evidence.
He also claims that the BJP government in Uttarakhand has done everything possible to save the so -called VIP, adding that the formation of SIT was also one of the steps that saved him from the central investigative investigation required by the family. Congress also descended strongly on the BJP to relax the poster soon after the judgment. “The BJP poster said that CM Dhami gave Ankit’s work to his father and brother of the government,” says Dasauni.
Ankit’s father says he is a contractual worker for a government nursing university with a salary of 7,000 GBP per month. Her brother has no job at the moment. The BJP poster, which was deleted from the social media handles, also claimed that the government gave the family 25 lakh, which Ankit’s father confirms that they have received.
Soon after the Murder, the older son of Vinoda Arya Arya, the nominated vice -chairman of the Uttarakhand Commission, was removed from the office.
Dual door for justice
The case of the murder of the Ankita Bhandari not only caused a stir on the security of women in the Himalayan state, but also again brought the problem of the police system in Uttarakhand. “Uttarakhand is the only state in India, where officials of the Ministry of Income, such as Patwaris, Kanungos (Income Inspectors) and NAIB then (at the Police Superintendent), claim that the former police cause” is “political will”.
Vijay Pal Singh Mehta, President of Parwatiya Rajasv Nirikshak, Rajasv UPnirikshak Avam Rajasv Sewak Sewak Sangh, who works for the beneficial employees of Uttarakhand, states that approximately 55% of UTTARAKHAND’S 11 HILL DISRICTS. The state income department currently has 1,216 police revenue police functions, of which 520 are unoccupied and in the process of completion.
According to data from the police department of Uttarakhand in 15 cases of abominable crimes that have been transferred to a regular Police Police since 2020, he had seven reports due to lack of evidence.
In 2018, the Institute High Court asked the state to cancel the Police System Patwari. The court order described in detail how the Ministry of Income officials were not trained to handle the scene of the crime, questioning, voice analysis, fingerprints, stops and more. They were not familiar with criminal law, he said. “The income officers worsen the investigation, resulting in liberation,” HC said. The speaker of the Khanduri Rita Assembly also demanded that the government immediately remove this system.
Five years after the order, income police practice continues.
ishita.mishra@thehind.co.in
Edit Sunalini Mathew
Published – June 7, 2025 9:04
