India

Parents of Murdered Resort Worker Removed from Rajghat Protest

By PTI

Ankita Bhandari’s parents visited Rajghat on Wednesday to offer prayers and speak to the media. After the visit, they joined a dharna with two others near the public gate of Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial, a location that is not a designated protest site. Police repeatedly asked the group to disperse; when they refused, the parents were removed from the area but not detained. During the incident, Bhandari’s mother, Soni Devi, complained of health issues and was taken to Burari Government Hospital for a medico‑legal examination, but both she and her husband declined to undergo the examination. AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha and supporters arrived at the hospital, and the parents left with the legislator. Bhandari, who worked as a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Rishikesh, was murdered on 18 September 2022. Her body was recovered from the Chilla canal four days later. Resort owner Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, and two accomplices were sentenced to life imprisonment. The case has attracted political attention amid allegations that an unidentified VIP was linked to the crime, prompting Bhandari’s family and activists to call for an investigation into that angle.