The parents of Ankita Bhandari, the 19-year-old receptionist who was murdered in Uttarakhand in September 2022, staged a protest at India Gate in New Delhi against the appointment of Dushyant Gautam as Sikkim governor, bringing the case back into focus.
Ankita’s body was recovered from the Chilla canal in Rishikesh a day later, following the police questioning of the accused. The accused were arrested on September 23 that year and allegedly confessed to the crime. Amid the controversy, Haridwar Police formed an SIT in December 2025 to investigate the authenticity of the audio recordings and the claims made in them. On January 10, Uttarakhand Police registered a fresh FIR. In May 2025, a Kotdwar court in Pauri Garhwal district convicted all three accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
In March 2023, a local court in Kotdwar framed charges against the three under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with Section 5 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, which deals with “procuring, inducing or taking a person for the sake of prostitution”.
Even after the convictions, the case remained in the spotlight, with the victim’s parents demanding that the role of Dushyant Gautam, who served as the BJP’s Uttarakhand in-charge from November 2020 to August 2026, be examined.
The state government ordered a CBI investigation on January 11 this year . However, the audio clip triggered protests across Uttarakhand, with demonstrators demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe. He also demanded that the probe be conducted under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge.
In the first week of January, Ankita’s father wrote to Dhami seeking a CBI investigation into the allegations of a “VIP” being involved in the case.
