Murder of Ankita Bhandari
2022 murder in India
Ankita Bhandari (11 November 2003 – 18 September 2022) was an Indian receptionist from Pauri who was murdered at the Vanantra Resort by its owner, Pulkit Arya, the son of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinod Arya, in Ganga-Bhogpur in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand.
Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Renu Bisht, also a member of the BJP, has been accused of attempting to destroy evidence by ordering an unlawful demolition of the resort after the murder.
The case gained much publicity in national and state media due to the use of political power in an attempt at rape by coercion. This theory is supported by statements of the victim's mother, though the evidence presented in the charge sheet were deemed insufficient. According to the witness statement of a hotel staffer, she was raped.
Three main accused which included Pulkit Arya, the assistant resort manager, Ankit Gupta, and the resort manager, Saurabh Bhaskar, have confessed to the murder and were sentenced on charges of abduction and murder. A district court in Kotdwar convicted Arya, Gupta, and Bhaskar for the murder of Bhandari on 30 May 2025, with the verdict being delivered by Judge Reena Negi.
Background
Bhandari was born in the village of Dobh-Srikot, district Pauri, Uttarakhand. In 2021, Bhandari enrolled in a certificate course at Dehradun's Shri Ram Institute of Hotel Management. However, her father, Birendra Singh, soon lost his job as a security guard, forcing her to drop out of the one-year course.
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