Pulkit Arya’s brother Ankit Arya (Left), their father Vinod Arya. Image Courtesy: Twitter
New Delhi: After huge public outcry in the aftermath of the Ankita Bhandari murder case in Uttarakhand, an embarrassed BJP sacked ex-minister Vinod Arya and his son Ankit Arya from the party Saturday.
The Pushkar Singh Dhami government also sacked Ankit Arya from the position of vice-chairperson of the State OBC Welfare Commission.
The stringent action came after public ire erupted against the state BJP government so much so that local MLA Renu Bisht’s car was vandalised by protestors and the public van transporting the three accused in the case was waylaid, stopped and the accused thrashed.
Vanantara Resort owner Pulkit Arya, the prime accused in the Ankita Bhandari missing and murder case, is the son of Vinod Arya and Ankit Arya’s brother.
The police on Friday had cracked open the case of Ankita Bhandari missing case as Pulkit and his two accomplices had confessed to having murdered Ankita since she had turned down Pulkit’s sexual advances and had resisted being pushed into prostitution at the resort.
Bhandari had recently joined the Vanantara resort as receptionist.
As per reports, Ankit Arya has been relieved from the said position with immediate effect under sub-section 3(f) of the section 5 of Uttarakhand Other Backward Classes Commission Act, 2003.
The order was issued by Principal Secretary El Fanai.
Accordingly, the facilities allowed to Ankit Arya too have been terminated with immediate effect, said the order.
Meanwhile, agitating people of Uttarakhand set Pulkit Arya’s Vanantara resort on fire. This came after the administration had already bulldozed the building late Friday night.
VK Jogdande, Pauri Garhwal’s District Magistrate also issued a statement saying such irregular resorts will be identified and action will be taken.
The outpouring of anger from the local community forced the government, right up to the chief minister, to respond quickly.
Early on Saturday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami issued directions to form a Special Investigative Team for further investigations in the case.
Protests are on since the arrest of Pulkit Arya, the owner; Saurabh Bhaskar, resort manager; and Ankit Gupta.
Ever since, the case has dominated social media with #JusticeForAnkita trending. Social media users targeted the ‘laid back’ attitude of the police.
Ankita Bhandari had joined the resort as receptionist nearly a month ago. She went missing on September 19. It was found in the investigation five days later that she was being forced into prostitution by the owner of the resort.
The three accused had thrown Ankita into the Ganges after an altercation the night before she went missing. The three had later come back to resort and tried to portray business as usual, and behaved with the resort staff as if Ankita was still alive. The same night, the perpetrators left for Haridwar to avoid any queries.
From Haridwar, Pulkit Arya called up his resort and requested that Ankita Bhandari be called to the phone since he wanted to talk to her, in an attempt to create alibis. When the hotel staff told him that Ankita Bhandari was nowhere to be found, he called revenue officials – what locals call ‘patwari police’ – to report Ankita as missing.
A team of the State Disaster Response Force that was conducting a search in the Ganges since Friday afternoon managed to fish out a body on Saturday morning that was later identified as Ankita by her family.
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