By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun 28 Sep: Congress leaders today stated a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in Gandhi Park here, today, demanding a CBI inquiry into the Ankita Bhandari murder case. They claimed that the SIT investigation would not reveal everything related to the crime and, therefore, it was necessary to hand over the case to CBI. The Congress leaders also demanded capital punishment for the guilty in the murder case. They also demanded all details be made public, who all were visiting the Vanantara Resort where Ankita had been employed.
Among those who participated in the dharna included PCC Chief Karan Mahra, veteran Congress leader Harish Rawat, Leader of the Opposition Yashpal Arya, former PCC Chief Ganesh Godiyal, MLAs Rajendra Bhandari, Madan Singh Bisht and former MLA Manoj Rawat.
The Congress leaders described the Ankita Murder Case as a shameful incident for humanity that had tarnished the image of Uttarakhand and demanded that the culprits be awarded capital punishment for their crime.
Karan Mahra claimed that the law and order situation had completely collapsed in the state and that incidents of atrocities on women were increasing under the BJP government. It was ironic that a heinous crime was committed against Ankita in a resort owned by a BJP leader. He alleged that criminals are being protected by the BJP Government.
Leader of the Opposition Yashpal Arya stated that Congress leaders had visited the victim’s family which was very poor and that no help had been received by them so far from the government. Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that Uttarakhand’s daughter Ankita was brutally murdered. The criminal was given enough time to destroy the evidence while some important evidence related to the CCTV cameras was destroyed by bulldozers. Mobiles of criminals and mobiles of their patrons were stated to be missing. There was a deliberate delay in taking the criminals for police remand. Ganesh Godiyal said that due to the resort belonging to the son of a BJP leader, work on covering up the heinous crime was done by the state government from the very beginning.
UKD leaders Kashi Singh Airi, Pushpesh Tripathi, former IAS officer SS Pangati also extended support to the dharna.
Prithvipal Chauhan, Surendra Kumar, Naveen Joshi, Sushil Rathi, Garima Dasauni, Manish Nagpal, Rakesh Negi, Parineeta Badoni, Sheeshpal Bisht, Acharya Nareshanand Nautiyal, Najma Khan, Rajiv Jain, Yamin Ansari, Ashwini Bahuguna, Darshan Lal, Asha Manorama Dobriyal Sharma were among those present on the spot.
