The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Ashutosh Negi, an Uttarakhand-based journalist and petitioner in Ankita Bhandari murder case, asking him to appear before it in Delhi on Tuesday, people familiar with the development said.
He was granted bail later. Prior to the CBI takeover, Uttarakhand police conducted an investigation in the case and arrested three accused persons. It was Negi who had been pursuing since 2022 for a CBI probe into the murder of Bhandari. Interestingly, he was arrested by Uttarakhand police in March 2024 for his reporting on the murder investigation. On May 30, 2025, the additional district and sessions court in Kotdwar convicted the three accused, identified as Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, and sentenced them to rigorous life imprisonment.
The demand for a fresh investigation into the alleged VIP angle gained momentum after actress Urmila Sanawar, who claims to be the wife of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, released an audio clip purportedly containing a telephone conversation between the two. The family has sought a thorough investigation into the alleged involvement of a VIP in Ankita’s murder.
She went missing on September 18, 2022, barely three weeks into the job, and her body was recovered from a canal days later. Ankita Bhandari worked at the Vanantra resort in Pauri Garhwal. The case set off protests across Uttarakhand and sustained public anger over how the early investigation was handled.
