BJP leader's son among three held for murder; angry mobs stage protest in Uttarakhand

The police informed that the accused confessed that they pushed the victim into a canal after a personal dispute and she drowned in it. The body of the victim is still missing, while teams of SDRF and police officials are searching for the body in the Shakti Canal near the District Power House.

Rishikesh: The Uttarakhand police on Friday arrested three people including Pulkit Arya, the son of former minister and BJP leader Vinod Arya, in a murder case of a 19-year-old receptionist identified as Ankita Bhandari. The victim had been missing for the past 5 days from the Vanantara resort where she was employed as a receptionist, while the resort is owned by Pulkit Arya, the prime accused.

The matter came to light when the family of the victim, concerned over her absence with no contact, reached out to the police. When the resort owner inquired about her absence, he pretended to be oblivious to the matter and even went ahead to file a complaint under pretense. "The girl went missing 5-6 days back. The area of the resort didn't come under a regular PS area. There's a patwari Police system here, and an FIR was registered under that. It was done on behalf of the resort owner," said Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar.

He further informed that the case was thereafter handed over to the Laxman Jhula Police on Thursday. "The Laxman Jhula officials cracked the case within 24 hrs. The resort owner turned out to be the accused. Three accused, including the owner Pulkit, were arrested," he added. The arrested accused have been identified as Pulkit Gupta (19), Saurabh Bhaskar (35, manager), and Pulkit Arya (35, resort owner) on charges of murder.

The police informed that the accused confessed that they pushed the victim into a canal after a personal dispute and she drowned in it. The body of the victim is still missing, while teams of SDRF and police officials are searching for the body in the Shakti Canal near the District Power House.

Meanwhile, there is an outrage among people over the murder. An angry mob of people on Friday gheraoed the police van carrying the accused Pulkit Arya. The police van was reportedly vandalized while attempts were also made to set Arya's resort aflame.