New Delhi: A special court in Kotdwar on Friday sentenced BJP leader Pulkit Arya, son of former Uttarakhand minister Vinod Arya, to life imprisonment in the Ankita Bhandari murder case.<\/p>\n
Along with Pulkit, his two employees\u2014Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta\u2014were also convicted and handed life terms. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of the three convicts.<\/p>\n
The verdict comes nearly two years and eight months after the crime, which had sparked widespread outrage across the country.<\/p>\n
Ankita Bhandari, 19, worked as a receptionist at a resort owned by Pulkit Arya in Rishikesh. She went missing on September 18, 2022. Her body was recovered six days later from the Chilla canal on September 24.<\/p>\n
According to the prosecution, Ankita was allegedly pressured to offer \u201cspecial services\u201d to VIP guests at the resort and was killed when she resisted. The case had drawn sharp criticism of the political and administrative system in Uttarakhand, with calls for swift justice.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the verdict, Ankita\u2019s father Virendra Singh Bhandari had appealed for the death penalty for the accused. \u201cThe criminals who killed my innocent daughter should be hanged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The court, however, awarded life imprisonment to all three convicts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: A special court in Kotdwar on Friday sentenced BJP leader Pulkit Arya, son of former Uttarakhand minister Vinod Arya, to life imprisonment in the Ankita Bhandari murder case. Along with Pulkit, his two employees\u2014Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta\u2014were also convicted and handed life terms. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,37],"tags":[1441,1442,1443,1444,1445,1446,1447,1448,1449],"class_list":["post-43977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-national","tag-000-on-each-of-the-three-convicts-the-verdict-comes-nearly-two-years-and-eight-months-after-the-crime","tag-1442","tag-2022-her-body-was-recovered-six-days-later-from-the-chilla-canal-on-september-24-according-to-the-prosecution","tag-his-two-employees-saurabh-bhaskar-and-ankit-gupta-were-also-convicted-and-handed-life-terms-the-court-also-imposed-a-fine-of-rs-50","tag-new-delhi-a-special-court-in-kotdwar-on-friday-sentenced-bjp-leader-pulkit-arya","tag-son-of-former-uttarakhand-minister-vinod-arya","tag-to-life-imprisonment-in-the-ankita-bhandari-murder-case-along-with-pulkit","tag-which-had-sparked-widespread-outrage-across-the-country-ankita-bhandari","tag-worked-as-a-receptionist-at-a-resort-owned-by-pulkit-arya-in-rishikesh-she-went-missing-on-september-18"],"yoast_head":"\n