Expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya and father of the main accused in the Uttarakhand receptionist murder case on Sunday said his son Pulkit Arya is a “seedha sadha balak”.
Vinod Arya who had formerly served as chairperson of the Uttarakhand Mati Board with a state minister’s rank and his other son Ankit who was the vice president of the Uttarakhand OBC Commission were expelled by the party on Saturday following protests over the killing of a 19-year-old receptionist at the resort.
The former BJP leader denied all charges against his son and maintained that Pulkit is innocent, “Seedha sadha balak hai (he is a simple boy). He is only concerned about his work. I want justice for both my son Pulkit and the murdered woman,” Arya told NDTV. “He would never indulge in such activities,” he added.
Pulkit, who owns the resort in Pauri’s Yamkeshwar block, was arrested along with two employees of the facility for allegedly killing the receptionist. A day after his arrest, the teen’s body was found in the Cheela canal close to Rishikesh, six days after her parents found her missing from her room. Pulkit Arya, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta were sent to 14 days judicial custody.
Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said the girl was being pressured by the resort owner to provide “special services” to guests. “Bhandari had been under pressure from Pulkit Arya to provide special services to guests,” Director General of Police Ashok Kumar said. The statement came after the teen’s Facebook friend reportedly alleged that she was killed because she refused to have sex with guests as demanded by the owner of the resort.
The killing triggered massive outrage in areas surrounding the resort with locals breaking glass panes and some trying to torch a pickle factory in its premises.
On Sunday, the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway was blocked for several hours by people demanding justice for the teen outside the mortuary in Srinagar where the girl’s body was kept after an autopsy at AIIMS, Rishikesh. The police diverted the traffic to avoid any inconvenience to commuters.
The draft report released by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh stated that the antemortem injuries (injuries before death) have been found on Ankita Bhandari’s body, suggestive of a blunt force trauma. However, she died of drowning, said the preliminary report.
Her father told the media that he was not satisfied with the provisional post-mortem report of his daughter, and added that her last rites will not be performed until they get the final post-mortem report.
(With inputs from PTI)
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