A police crackdown before dawn at India Gate in Delhi on Thursday brought a sit-in protest by the parents of Ankita Bhandari , who was murdered in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district in September 2022, to an end after they were briefly detained.
They were later released. Nationwide protests will be launched if the government does not accept our demand,” Ankita’s father told reporters. Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had joined the protest the previous evening, along with several party leaders and workers. The protest opposed the appointment of former Uttarakhand BJP in-charge Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the Governor of Sikkim. After Gandhi left, Congress leaders and workers continued the protest, raising slogans. Police moved in before dawn, briefly detained Ankita’s parents and removed the party workers from the site. Rahul Gandhi arrived with his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and other Congress leaders to express support for Ankita’s parents. Gandhi’s visit marked his return to the streets of Delhi, albeit for a different cause. Police personnel were deployed in large numbers as Congress workers continued their sit-in alongside Ankita’s parents, visuals shared by news agencies PTI and ANI showed. Before dawn, police detained her parents. A video shared by the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), the party’s youth wing, showed protesters raising slogans and waving the national flag as security personnel removed them from the site. The Congress accused the police of manhandling protesters who had gathered to demand justice in the murder case. The police action took place hours after Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi met Ankita’s parents at the protest site. Visuals showed police personnel, accompanied by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, approaching the protesters in the dark and taking them away. Her mother warned that she would go on a hunger strike. If we are not permitted to sit here, we will sit on a hunger strike in our own homes. 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. Congress MP Pawan Khera alleged that the police action showed that democratic freedoms were being eroded. “This is brutality. You can see democracy coming to an end at India Gate. Her body was found in the Chilla canal four days later.
As he was being detained, Ankita’s father gave the Centre 24 hours to cancel Gautam’s appointment. “We give a 24-hour ultimatum to the government for the cancellation of Dushyant’s appointment. It is ending at 4 am,” he said. Bhandari, who worked as a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Rishikesh, was murdered on September 18, 2022.
Her mother said, “We want to state that we will remain steadfast until his (Dushyant Gautam) appointment is revoked… Shrinate, who was present at the protest site, said, “What kind of action is this? On Monday, he led a large march from the Constitution Club to the Supreme Court to file a fresh petition against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Khera and Congress leader Supriya Shrinate, along with other party members, also joined the sit-in. The protest was held near the junction of the India Gate roundabout and Kartavya Path. After Gandhi left, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, Uday Bhanu Chib, Mumtaz Patel and other senior party leaders joined the protesters. Her family has sought a detailed investigation into the alleged involvement of a VIP in the murder. Gautam has not been named as an accused in any of the cases related to the crime, and the allegations against him remain unproven. Ankita’s parents have accused Gautam of being responsible. He has denied the allegations.
The family wants investigators to examine Gautam’s role in the case, who served as BJP’s Uttarakhand in-charge from November 2020 to August 2026.
After a 90-minute meeting with the family, the LoP wrote on X, “For four years, Ankita Bhandari’s family has not received justice, but a ‘VIP’ accused has certainly been rewarded with protection and a constitutional position…I and the Congress Party stand with them – in their grief as well as in this fight for justice”.
Sanawar, who claims to be the wife of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, released what she said was a telephone conversation with Rathore in which he allegedly claimed that a BJP leader was involved in the case. The state government ordered an investigation on January 11. On February 2, the CBI registered a first information report (FIR) against an unknown person to investigate allegations of a VIP’s involvement.
Notably, the parents 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. Resort owner Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, and his two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, were convicted in the case. The purported recording triggered protests across Uttarakhand, with demonstrators demanding a CBI probe. Gautam, however, has not been named as an accused in any of the cases related to Ankita’s murder.
Their demand follows the release of an audio clip by actress Urmila Sanawar in December last year.
