A Uttarakhand receptionist was killed before she got her first paycheck, says her relative
The daughter of an ex-security guard as well as an Anganwadi worker. She was in the 12th grade and was eager to attend college. However, due to her father quitting his position as a guard some time ago, she made the decision to join as a receptionist in a resort last month. However, she didn’t have the time to earn the first amount of money.
This, in a nutshell, describes the life of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari, as per the members of her family.
On the weekend, police retrieved the body of Ankita from a canal, just six days after she was reported missing from the resort located situated in the Laxman Jhula area of Uttarakhand.
on Friday police took into custody Pulkit Arya, the resort’s owner as well as the son of former Minister Vinod Arya who was allegedly guilty of forcing Ankita into the water after an altercation. The resort’s manager Saurabh Bhaskar as well as another person named Ankit were also detained.
According to The Sunday Express, Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said the police have found evidence that suggests the suspects were believed to be pushing Ankita to offer “special services” to some guests at the resort and she was killed for refusing to comply with.
According to a family member of Ankita’s She joined the resort on the 28 after moving out of her home in the village of Dobh Srikot about 130 kilometers away. “Due due to the financial situation that her parents were in, they were forced to quit her studies after an intermediate at Bhagat Ram School in Pauri and begin working. Her father Virendra Bhandari worked as a security guard for private companies in the Chauras dam. However, he quit the job just a couple of years in the past. The only earner of this family is her mom Soni Bhandari, who works as an anganwadi-worker. Her older sister Sachin studies and studies in Delhi” stated Lilawati her husband, Viendra’s older brother Rajendra Bhandari.
“The health that the household was in wasn’t satisfactory and that’s why she was forced to move out of the village and relocate to the resort when she was offered an opportunity to work. We do not know the method of contact however, on the 28th of August an automobile from the resort came to pick her up. In the resort, she was allocated the room she needed and then remain there. She was offered pay of Rs 10,000 per month for the position of receptionist However, we didn’t think that they were going to end her life before she even received her first wage,” said Lilawati.
“She wanted to go to school more, and we were sad when she was forced to stop her education in order to look after the family. We also believed that she could be successful in the field she was working in. But just a few days after she had left her mom told me that Ankita was not like she did before and it was clear that something was getting her. At the time we didn’t think about it. Perhaps, we could have done,” said Lilawati, crying and waiting outside the AIIMS-Rishikesh mortuary waiting to take the corpse of her sister.
DGP Ashok Kumar told the police have found the contents of a WhatsApp chat between Ankita and her friend living in Jammu. “In the chat, she stated that they (the suspects) are requesting special services ‘… for her friend’, and the friend’s chat provides significant evidence to us. Additionally, we discovered the body in that same channel (Shakti canal close to the Chilla powerhouse) where the accused admitted that she forced her to do so,” said the DGP.
The Whatsapp chat police sources claimed that Ankita said she felt uneasy at the resort, and suggested that one of the suspects had requested “special services” in exchange for $10,000.
In the meantime, a part of Vanantra Resort that was owned by Pulkit was declared “illegal construction” and demolished by the Pauri Garhwal district administration. The area that was destroyed comprised the room in which Ankita was, the reception space, and the front part that was part of the resort.
The move was taken hours before Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami instructed District Magistrates in all districts to inquire about resorts operating under their authority and take necessary steps against those that are illegally constructed or operating.
Dhami also established the Special Investigation Team under DIG P Renuka Devi to look into the murder investigation.
At the same time, the ruling BJP exiled his father Vinod Arya as well as his elder brother Ankit Arya from the party. Ankit Arya was also removed from his post as Uttarakhand OBC Commission vice-president.
The action was unable to calm the local outrage over the murder.
Following the recovery of Ankita’s body and taken to a postmortem angry protesters set ablaze part of a gooseberry processing facility operated by Pulkit who was located in the vicinity of the hotel. A few protesters attack the vehicle of the local BJP MLA Renu Bisht. Following the postmortem, Ankita’s body was transported to Srinagar in the Pauri Garhwal district for cremation.
