By Our Staff Reporter
Kotdwar, 18 Mar: In the infamous Ankita Bhandari murder case of Uttarakhand, the three accused namely Pulkit Arya who is the main accused, Ankit Gupta and Saurabh Bhaskar appeared in the ADJ’s court here today. During the hearing held today, charges were framed against the three accused in the court. At the same time, the Court also rejected the bail applications of Pulkit Arya and Ankit Gupta. Earlier, Saurabh Bhaskar’s bail application was also rejected by the Court.
During the framing of the charges today, all three accused claimed that allegations against them were false and prayed for a court trial. The Court has fixed 28 March as the date for the next hearing.
As per the charges framed today, the main accused Pulkit Arya was charged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 201 (suppression of evidence), 354 (A) (molestation and outraging modesty) and the Immoral Trafficking Act. The second accused Saurabh Bhaskar was charged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 201 (suppression of evidence) and Immoral Trafficking Act. The third accused, Ankit Gupta, was also charged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 201 (suppression of evidence) and Immoral Trafficking Act.
The police had taken the accused to the court amid tight security, even as various organisations sat on dharna outside the court premises. Several Congress workers also joined the protest. As soon as the police arrived with the accused, the protestors started raising slogans. When they were stopped, Congress workers clashed with the police. After which the police arrested the Congress workers protesting in front of the court.
It may be recalled that Pulkit Arya had registered a complaint of disappearance of his employee Ankita Bhandari from the Vanantara Resort on the night of 18 September last year. The complaint was filed with the Revenue Police which did not take any action, which resulted in public furore forcing the government to hand over the case to the regular police. It was after the police investigation and interrogation by the police that the accused were arrested. During the interrogation, the accused confessed that they had murdered Ankita, a charge which they now are denying before the court. It may be recalled that while the Vanantara Resort is owned by Pulkit Arya, the second accused Saurabh Bhaskar was the manager and Ankit Gupta was also an employee.
According to the claims made by many sources, a fight had ensued between Pulkit and Ankita in the evening at the resort. Then, while returning from Rishikesh, again Pulkit had a fight with Ankita near the Chilla Canal after which Pulkit threw Ankita Bhandari into the canal. The police had arrested Pulkit, Ankit and Saurabh in this case on 22 September. Ankita Bhandari, a resident of Pauri, was working as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort and she was allegedly being pressurised for immoral activities and she had refused to be part of the immoral activities.
