Monday, 10 October 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Uttarakhand probing the Ankita Bhandari murder case has added charges of sexual harassment under section 354A of IPC and Section 5 under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act against the three accused Pulkit Arya, Ankit, and Saurabh Bhaskar.
The officials informed that the SIT added the charges based on the evidence gathered from statements of staff members of the resort where the 19-year-old Ankita worked as a receptionist and screenshots of her chat with a friend, in which she allegedly mentioned being pressured to provide special service to VIP guests by the owner of the resort Pulkit Arya, the main accused of her murder. The authorities had charged the accused with murder (IPC 302), criminal conspiracy (IPC 120B), and concealment of evidence (IPC 201) sections in the initial stage of the investigation.
The deputy inspector general (DIG), of law and order, P Renuka Devi who is heading the SIT informed that the new sections were added to the murder case based on the investigation done so far including statements of witnesses and electronic evidence. Some items have also been sent to Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) for testing.
The SIT has also requested the forensic laboratory investigating the electronic evidence to provide the results as soon as possible to go ahead with the necessary procedures in the case, added the DIG. She said that the police are working meticulously to gather evidence in the case and no accused will be spared for the heinous crime of Ankita’s murder.
