Delhi Police detained the parents of Ankita Bhandari, the 19-year-old receptionist murdered in Uttarakhand in September 2022, during a pre-dawn crackdown on their overnight protest at India Gate on October 15. The family was demanding that the appointment of senior BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam as Governor of Sikkim be put on hold until the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) completes its investigation into allegations surrounding the possible involvement of a “VIP” in Ankita’s murder.
According to ThePrint, the parents were detained at around 3:45 am and released at approximately 5 am. Several Congress leaders who had joined the sit-in were also detained and subsequently released. Reports and videos carried by ANI, PTI and The Times of India documented the police action, which brought the overnight protest to an abrupt end.
#WATCH | 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case: Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi meets Ankita Bhandari’s parents at India Gate in Delhi
They are protesting against the appointment of BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the Governor of Sikkim https://t.co/ZdiuPvaSZp
— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2026
चार साल से अंकिता भंडारी के परिवार को इंसाफ नहीं मिला, लेकिन एक ‘VIP’ आरोपी को संरक्षण और संवैधानिक पद का इनाम ज़रूर मिला।
जहां बलात्कारियों और हत्यारों का फूल-मालाओं से स्वागत होता है और अपराधियों को सत्ता की ताकत से नवाज़ा जाता है – उस महिला-विरोधी BJP से कोई उम्मीद की भी नहीं जा सकती।
आज, अंकिता के माता-पिता अपनी बच्ची के लिए न्याय की गुहार ले कर, अपने घर से मीलों दूर, India Gate पर बैठे हैं।
मैं और कांग्रेस पार्टी उनके साथ खड़े हैं – उनके दुख में भी और इंसाफ की इस लड़ाई में भी।
#JusticeForAnkitaBhandari
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 14, 2026
🚨 4 AM. INDIA GATE. MODI-SHAH SENT THE POLICE!
Ankita Bhandari’s parents were sitting peacefully, demanding justice for their murdered daughter.
And at 4 in the morning, Modi-Shah sent Delhi Police to remove them and the Congress leaders standing with them.
A Governor’s chair for Dushyant Gautam. Police action against Ankita’s grieving parents.
Modi-Shah, is this your idea of justice for India’s daughters? 💔🇮🇳
— Indian Youth Congress (@IYC) October 14, 2026
सुबह के 4 बजे। जब दुनिया सो रही थी, तब अंकिता भंडारी के माता-पिता को हिरासत में ले लिया गया।
उनका गुनाह? वे इंडिया गेट पर चुपचाप बैठे थे – बोझिल कंधों के साथ, बिना किसी हंगामे के और सिर्फ़ इतना माँग रहे थे कि CBI जाँच पूरी होने तक दुष्यंत गौतम को सिक्किम का राज्यपाल न बनाया जाए।
कल मैं और प्रियंका इन माता-पिता से मिले थे।
जिस जाँच का नतीजा आया नहीं, उसके पहले ही नियुक्ति की जल्दी और सवाल पूछने वाले माँ-बाप को रात के अंधेरे में उठा लिया गया।
इस सरकार की पहचान यही है: पीड़ितों की आवाज़ दबा दो, सवाल करने वालों को हटा दो।पर न्याय की लड़ाई न दबेगी, न रुकेगी।
कांग्रेस अंकिता भंडारी के परिवार के साथ खड़ी है, और खड़ी रहेगी – जब तक उन्हें न्याय नहीं मिलता।#JusticeForAnkitaBhandari
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 15, 2026
#WATCH | Ankita Bhandari murder case | Delhi | Ankita Bhandari’s mother says, “We want to state that we will remain steadfast until his (Dushyant Gautam) appointment is revoked… If we are not permitted to sit here, we will sit on a hunger strike in our own homes…”
Her father says, “We give the government a 24-hour ultimatum: the appointment of Dushyant Kumar as the Governor of Sikkim must be cancelled. If it is not revoked, the people across the entire country will take to the streets, and the government will be held responsible”
— ANI (@ANI) October 15, 2026
#WATCH | Ankita Bhandari murder case | Delhi | On the detention of Ankita Bhandari’s parents, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate says, “What kind of action is this? A heartless act against helpless parents who have been seeking justice for four years. Instead of granting them justice, the main accused is being appointed as a Governor, and on top of that, these parents are being treated with such cruelty. Like cowards, they arrived before six in the morning and dragged the young women away from here. What kind of conduct is this from the Delhi Police? The Delhi Police should be ashamed!”
— ANI (@ANI) October 15, 2026
The detention came hours after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met Ankita’s parents at India Gate on Wednesday evening, October 14, and expressed solidarity with their demand for an investigation into the alleged VIP connection. After the Congress leaders left, party MPs, office-bearers and workers continued the sit-in alongside the family and activist Yogita Bhayana.
A 24-hour ultimatum and a demand for accountability
As police moved to detain the protesters, Ankita’s father, Virendra Bhandari, issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the government, demanding that Gautam’s appointment be cancelled or put on hold until the CBI inquiry concludes.
“We give a 24-hour ultimatum to the government for the cancellation of Dushyant’s appointment. Nationwide protests will be launched if the government does not accept our demand,” he told the media, according to PTI.
Ankita’s mother, Soni Devi, also appealed to President Droupadi Murmu to intervene. She warned that if the authorities did not allow the family to continue protesting, they would resort to a hunger strike, including at their home. The parents have also sought an appointment with the President to place their concerns before her directly.
The family has repeatedly insisted that the investigation must examine the alleged VIP angle rather than merely revisit the roles of the three men already convicted of Ankita’s murder. Her father has sought a focused investigation into the alleged motive and the possible involvement of others, as well as judicial oversight by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge. The family has also demanded the identification of the alleged VIP and access to call-detail records relevant to the investigation.
The demand is not that the existing convictions be disregarded. It is that those convictions should not, by themselves, foreclose questions about whether the circumstances surrounding Ankita’s murder were fully investigated.
The alleged VIP connection remains unresolved
Ankita worked as a receptionist at the Vanantra resort in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district, near Rishikesh. She was murdered on September 18, 2022, and her body was recovered from the Chilla canal several days later.
In May 2025, a sessions court convicted resort owner Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, and two resort employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, of her murder. All three were sentenced to life imprisonment. The investigation and trial established their criminal responsibility for the killing, but the separate allegations concerning a possible VIP have continued to trouble the family and attract public scrutiny.
The alleged VIP angle centres on claims that Ankita was pressured to provide “extra services” or sexual favours to a guest at the resort and resisted those demands. Her family has maintained that the identity and possible role of the person allegedly connected to those demands must be investigated.
The controversy intensified in December 2025 after actor Urmila Sanawar, who has claimed to be the wife of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, released audio and video recordings purportedly connected to Rathore. The recordings were alleged to refer to a senior political figure in connection with the case. Sanawar identified Gautam as the alleged VIP, while Rathore subsequently disputed the authenticity of the material and claimed that the clips were fabricated or AI-generated.
Gautam, a former BJP national general secretary who served as the party’s Uttarakhand in-charge, has denied any involvement in Ankita’s murder. He has initiated defamation proceedings against people and political organisations linking him to the crime. The Delhi High Court has directed the removal of certain social media posts connecting him to the murder, observing that the allegations appeared prima facie defamatory, as reported by Hindustan Times. The police Special Investigation Team had earlier stated that it found no evidence establishing the involvement of an influential political leader in the murder, The Indian Express reported.
These facts are material and cannot be ignored. Gautam has not been named as an accused in the murder case based on the information available here, and the allegations against him have not been established. At the same time, the existence of denials and defamation proceedings does not eliminate the need to establish whether the CBI investigation has adequately examined the specific questions raised by the family.
Following renewed protests in Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced that the state government would recommend a CBI investigation. The CBI subsequently registered a case against an unknown person to investigate the allegations surrounding the possible VIP connection. The family wants this inquiry to address the outstanding questions rather than simply reproduce the findings of the earlier investigation.
Political appointment amid an unfinished investigation
Gautam’s appointment as Governor of Sikkim, announced on October 12, has brought the unresolved controversy back into public view. Ankita’s parents are asking that he not assume the office until the CBI completes its investigation into the alleged VIP angle.
The Congress has accused the BJP of rewarding a leader whose name has been raised in connection with the allegations while the family continues to seek answers. Rahul Gandhi wrote on X that Ankita’s family had gone years without justice while an alleged VIP had been rewarded with “protection and a constitutional position”. He said the Congress would stand with the family in its demand for justice.
Congress general secretary K. C. Venugopal has also urged the President to reconsider the appointment. Uttarakhand Congress leaders have argued that proceeding with the appointment before the investigation concludes would deepen the family’s distress and undermine public confidence in accountability.
The BJP has defended the state government’s handling of the murder case. Mahendra Bhatt, Uttarakhand BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP, pointed to the arrests, the constitution of a Special Investigation Team, the prosecution and the financial assistance of ₹25 lakh provided to the family. He also said the state government had acted on the family’s demand for a CBI inquiry. Those steps, however, do not answer the family’s central question: has the alleged VIP connection been adequately investigated? The convictions of the three men are significant, but the separate inquiry must be judged on the evidence it examines and the questions it resolves, not merely on the existence of those convictions.
Detaining the family does not resolve the questions they have raised
The pre-dawn detention has shifted attention from the substance of the family’s demands to the conduct of the authorities. According to report by ThePrint, police took Ankita’s parents into custody before releasing them shortly afterwards. Congress leaders, including Pawan Khera, Supriya Shrinate, Imran Pratapgarhi, Jothimani and Indian Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib, were among those reported detained.
Rahul Gandhi condemned the action, writing on X that Ankita’s parents had been taken into custody while sitting quietly at India Gate and demanding that Gautam’s appointment be held back until the CBI investigation was complete. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also criticised the treatment of the parents, arguing that a family seeking justice had been met with police action rather than answers.
Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke also condemned the detention. In a post on X, he said the treatment of Ankita’s parents should make people ashamed and questioned why the government was treating citizens seeking justice with such cruelty.
This should make us all ashamed!
Ankita Bhandari’s parents don’t deserve such inhuman treatment. Why is the govt treating its own citizens with such cruelty?
#JusticeForAnkitaBhandari
— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) October 15, 2026
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