New Delhi: The Special Investigation Team probing the Ankita Bhandari murder case has taken the three main accused on police remand. The accused may also be taken to the crime scene to establish the sequence of events, news agency PTI reported an official as saying.
The three main accused in the case are Pulkit Arya, owner of the resort where Bhandari was working as a receptionist, and his two accomplices — resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta.
The trio was arrested on September 23 as they were accused of killing Ankita Bhandari after she refused to give ‘extra service’ to a VIP customer who is yet to be identified.
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Revenue police sub-inspector Vaibhav Pratap Singh, under suspension for dereliction of duty for allegedly not registering an FIR in the case despite being approached, is also being interrogated.
The investigating team has recorded the statement of Ankita’s friend with whom she had a chat on the day of her murder.
The SIT has constituted five teams to speed up the investigation. The team also recovered a mobile phone from the Chilla canal into which Ankita had allegedly been thrown. The phone was handed over to the forensic team, PTI reported the official as informing.
The murder case triggered massive public outrage in the state as locals blocked the Badrinath-Rishikesh highway in front of the mortuary, near the base hospital, where the deceased’s body was taken postmortem.
It has also recovered a mobile phone from the Chilla canal into which Ankita had allegedly been thrown. The phone has been handed over to the forensic team, the official said.
Ankita Bhandari’s body was recovered from the Chilla Canal in Rishikesh on September 24.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met Ankita Bhandari’s parents on Friday. He assured her parents of strict action against the culprits.