Uttarakhand resort murder: Teen's family agrees for cremation

The family of a 19-year-old woman receptionist, who was killed at a resort in Uttarakhand allegedly by her employer, on Sunday (September 25) agreed to conduct her last rites.

Initially, the family had refused to cremate Ankita Bhandari’s body until they get the final post-mortem details, even as a preliminary report said she died due to drowning.

The family had also questioned the state government and said the resort where she worked was demolished to destroy evidence.

Also read: Ankita Bhandari murder: Angry crowd burns resort, BJP MLA’s car attacked

Victim’s father speaks

Ankita’s father and brother on Sunday refused to perform her last rites until they get the final post-mortem report.

“I am not satisfied with the provisional post-mortem report. Her last rites will not be performed until we get the final detailed report,” her father Virendra Singh Bhandari said.

Her brother Ajay Singh Bhandari said the provisional report is lacking in detail.

They also spoke against the demolition exercise carried out at the resort where she was working as a receptionist. “It may be an attempt to destroy evidence,” Ajay said.

Also read: Lakhimpur Kheri rape and murder: Family says victims were supportive, ambitious

The draft report released by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, also said antemortem injuries (injuries before death) have been found on Ankita’s body, suggestive of a blunt force trauma. However, she died of drowning, said the preliminary report.

3 people arrested

Ankita’s body was recovered from the Cheela canal close to Rishikesh early on Saturday, six days after her parents found her missing from her room. The post-mortem was conducted by a four-member team of doctors at AIIMS on Saturday.

The details of injuries and other findings will be given in the final report, said the draft.

The woman worked at the Vanantara resort in Pauri district’s Yamkeshwar block owned by Haridwar BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya.

Pulkit and two other employees have been arrested in the case.

Meanwhile, the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway was blocked for several hours in Uttarakhand’s Shrinagar area on Sunday by people demanding justice for Ankita.

They demanded the perpetrators of the crime be hanged immediately. A section of women at the dharna site also demanded that the accused be handed over to them so that they could be punished appropriately.

Pressured to provide ‘special services’

On Saturday, the Uttarakhand police chief said that Ankita was being pressured by the resort owner to provide “special services” to guests.

DGP Ashok Kumar said that this much has been known from the girl’s chat with a friend.

Earlier, a Facebook friend of the victim had reportedly alleged that she was killed because she refused to have sex with guests as demanded by the owner of the resort.

Before her body was found, she was reported missing by her parents after they could not find her in her room Monday morning.

(With agency inputs)