Angry relatives of the 19-year-old receptionist Ankita Bhandari allegedly murdered by a Bharatiya Janata Party leader’s son cremated her Sunday and protesters lifted an eight-hour blockade of a key highway after Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami assured justice.
According to ANI, CM Dhami also informed Governor about the action being taken regarding the brutal murder of daughter Ankita Bhandari. CM assured that the culprits wouldn’t be spared under any circumstances. Condoling heinous crime, Gov expressed his condolences to the bereaved family, Raj Bhawan sources said.
Ankita Bhandari’s family had initially refused to perform her last rites until they received the final post-mortem report. A preliminary report of an autopsy conducted at AIIMS, Rishikesh, said she died of drowning but there were antemortem injuries (injuries before death) on her body.
Uttarakhand: Massive protest erupts outside mortuary in Srinagar, Pauri Garwhal dist, where Ankita Bhandari’s father arrived to take her body for last rites
She was allegedly murdered in Rishikesh by now expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya who was arrested yesterday pic.twitter.com/kqyopLrI6l
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) September 25, 2022
A message from the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami that the SIT was doing its job and the perpetrators of the murder would get the punishment they deserve helped convince the woman’s relatives to finally cremate her.
Earlier on Sunday, protesters demanding justice for Bhandari sat on a dharna on the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway in Uttarakhand’s Srinagar. The blockade lasted for nearly eight hours, leading to a nine-km-long traffic snarl.
The protesters demanded that 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.
