The parents of Ankita Bhandari were detained at 4 am on Thursday but released later after staging a sit-in protest at India Gate in Delhi against the appointment of former Uttarakhand BJP in-charge Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the Governor of Sikkim.
Visuals shared by news agency ANI showed police taking Bhandari’s mother into custody. Congress leaders Supriya Shrinate, Pawan Khera and Kazi Nizamuddin slammed the police action. They alleged that the authorities were targeting those seeking justice for Ankita Bhandari and opposing Gautam’s proposed appointment. A heartless act against helpless parents who have been seeking justice for four years. Instead of granting them justice, the main accused is being appointed as a Governor, and on top of that, these parents are being treated with such cruelty.”
After being detained, she said she would begin a hunger strike at their home if the authorities did not allow them to protest. Shrinate, who was present at the protest site, said, “What kind of action is this?
The parents of the 19-year-old receptionist, who was murdered in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district in September 2022, have demanded that Gautam’s appointment be put on hold until the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged VIP angle in the case is completed.
