Photo: Nikhilb239 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The parents of Ankita Bhandari, the resort receptionist murdered in Uttarakhand in 2022, began a sit-in near India Gate in New Delhi on Wednesday, October 14, to protest against the appointment of senior BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam as Governor of Sikkim. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met them at the protest site in the evening.
Her father, Virendra Singh Bhandari, and mother, Soni Devi, appealed to President Droupadi Murmu to hold back the appointment until the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) completes its probe into the alleged involvement of a “VIP” in the events that led to their daughter’s death. The family has named Gautam, a former Rajya Sabha MP and BJP general secretary, as that person. Gautam has firmly denied the allegation and has taken his accusers to court for defamation.
Opposition leaders join the protest
Several Congress leaders, including Pawan Khera, Supriya Shrinate, Alka Lamba and Imran Pratapgarhi, stayed on with the parents late into the night amid a heavy police deployment, and leaders of other opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party, voiced support. Rahul Gandhi, who had met the family in August, said on X that the family had waited four years for justice while the accused “VIP” had been rewarded with protection and a constitutional post.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said his government had ensured quick arrests, set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), secured life sentences for the convicts and recommended a CBI investigation. State BJP president Mahendra Bhatt added that the family had also received ₹25 lakh in financial assistance.
The case so far
Ankita had been working at a resort near Rishikesh in Pauri Garhwal district for about three weeks when she was killed on September 18, 2022. Her body was pulled out of a canal six days later. The resort was run by Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya. Investigators found she had been pressured to offer sexual services to guests and had refused.
In 2025, a court in Pauri Garhwal convicted Arya and his associates Ankit Gupta and Saurabh Bhaskar of murder and sentenced all three to life in prison. The verdict did not settle the separate question of whether anyone else was involved. The state police SIT had earlier said it found no evidence that an influential leader played a role.
How Gautam’s name came up
The VIP allegation returned to the headlines in December 2025, when Urmila Sanawar, who said she was the wife of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, released videos and an audio clip in which Rathore purportedly linked Gautam to the case. Rathore said the clip was generated with artificial intelligence. After fresh protests across Uttarakhand in January 2026, Dhami recommended a CBI probe.
That month Gautam filed a defamation case in the Delhi High Court against Sanawar, Rathore, the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party and others, and the court directed the two parties to remove social media posts linking him to the murder. In June, Dehradun Police arrested Rathore over allegations that he had conspired to falsely implicate Gautam.
What happens next
The family wants the CBI to focus on the alleged VIP angle and the motive for the murder rather than re-examine the case against the three convicted men, and has asked for the probe to be supervised by a retired Supreme Court judge. Congress leaders have said they will stay with the parents for as long as the sit-in continues, keeping the appointment under pressure in the days ahead.
