A protest by Ankita Bhandari’s parents at India Gate intensified on Wednesday after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the family and expressed support for its demand for justice. The protest is linked to opposition to the appointment of BJP leader Dushyant Gautam as governor of Sikkim while a CBI inquiry into the alleged ‘VIP’ angle in the 2022 murder case is under way, according to Live Hindustan – NCR.
Rahul Gandhi reached India Gate in the evening and met Bhandari’s parents, who were sitting in protest at the landmark public space. He also waved the national flag during the visit. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accompanied him and offered condolences to the family before the two leaders returned to their residence.
The family has opposed Gautam’s appointment and has appealed to the President not to allow him to take up the gubernatorial post until the CBI investigation is completed. During the protest, Ankita’s father, Virendra Singh Bhandari, demanded that the politician named in the family’s appeal be sent to jail. The source report records the name as ‘Dushyant Kumar’ in the quoted demand, while its surrounding account identifies the political leader as Dushyant Gautam.
The controversy centres on allegations that a political figure may have been the unidentified ‘VIP’ referred to in discussions around the case. The source report says the family had sought an investigation into whether Gautam was the person referred to in those allegations. Congress leaders have alleged that appointing him governor amounts to giving him constitutional protection and a route away from possible legal proceedings. These are political allegations and have not been established as findings of the CBI inquiry in the supplied report.
The protest at India Gate follows a demonstration held a day earlier at Gandhi Park in Dehradun under the leadership of Uttarakhand Congress president Ganesh Godiyal. Congress office-bearers and workers opposed Gautam’s appointment and called for it to be reconsidered. The party has also demanded that the alleged VIP angle be investigated.
More Congress workers were expected to join the India Gate protest. According to the report, mattresses were being brought to the site and party workers were planning to remain there overnight while seeking justice for Bhandari’s family. The development places a state-level criminal case and an unresolved investigation at the centre of a high-profile protest in the national capital.
Bhandari, 19, worked as a receptionist at the Vanantara resort near Rishikesh. She was reported missing after the alleged murder on September 18, 2022, and her body was recovered from the Cheela canal four days later. Resort owner Pulkit Arya and employees Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta were convicted in the case and sentenced to life imprisonment, the report states. The next formal development highlighted in the report is the continuing CBI inquiry into the alleged VIP connection.
