The family of the teenager who worked as a receptionist at a resort in Uttarakhand and was allegedly murdered by the son of the expelled BJP leader has refused to cremate her body. They are now alleging that the resort, owned by the accused, was razed down to destroy the evidence of the crime. Engraged locals of the area too had set the building on fire on Saturday.
Nineteen-year-old Ankita Bhandari's body was recovered from a canal on Friday, five days after she went missing from the resort on September 18.
As the police await a "proper" post-mortem report, there have been reports of protests in parts of Uttarakhand over the murder.
Here are the updates on the case:
Where are the protests happening?
A huge crowd of protesters gathered outisde the mortuary on Sunday where the Bhandari's body was taken for the post-mortem. Demanding justice for the girl and her family, the crowd blocked the Badrinath-Rishikesh highway, while the authorities were trying to clear the jam, according to reports.
Shops in Srinagar area of Uttrakhand also remained shut in protest of the murder that involves Pulkit Arya, son of the now-expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya.
What have the police found?
On Saturday, reports emerged saying that Bhandari was being forced into prostitution and was killed after she refused to give-in to Pulkit's demands. In a WhatsApp chat with a friend, Bhandari had alleged that she was being asked to provide "special services" to the guests at the resort.
"We have called every employee in the resort to the police station; will take everyone's statements. We're running a full background analysis on the resort," DIG PR Devi, SIT in-charge of the murder case, said, adding that the text messages are also being probed.
"There is a phone chat of the girl suggesting that the accused were bothering her. The accused said the girl left the resort around 8 pm with them to visit Rishikesh... later there was a heated exchange between Pulkit and Ankita near the canal. During the altercation, Ankita threw Pulkit's phone into the canal. He then pushed her into the canal," Pauri Garhwal SSP Yaswant Singh told The Indian Express.
Who are the accused?
Pulkit, along with two others, were sent to a judicial custody on Friday. The other two acused have been identified as resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar, and assistant manager Ankit Gupta. The trio has reportedly confessed to the crime of killing the girl and then dumping her body into the Cheela canal.
Pulkit's father has been a former chairman of a state board with the rank of a minister, while his brother Ankit Arya is also a BJP functionary. Both have been expelled fro the party after the urder case.
The NDTV reported that two audio clips surfaced in connection with the case in which Pulkit can be heard talking to Bhandari's friend Pushp. Ankit reportedly asked Pushp about Bhandari's whereabouts in a bid to mislead him and implicate him in the murder case.'
