Ankita Bhandari Case: All three accused have been sentenced to life imprisonment, an angry mob broke the police barricades

After a 26-month-long hearing in the Vanantara Resort case, on Friday, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge has convicted three people including the son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya for the murder of the girl.

The ADJ court has sentenced the three accused in the Vanantara case to life imprisonment while convicting them of murder. Along with this, a financial fine of Rs 50,000 each has also been imposed on all three. These include resort owner Pulkit Arya, manager Saurabh Bhaskar, and assistant manager Ankit Gupta alias Pulkit.

At the same time, the government will give compensation of four lakhs to the relatives of the victim.

The mother of the deceased said that she was expecting a death sentence. As soon as she came out of the court, she burst into tears. At the same time, the protesters broke the police barricade outside the court. The police are stopping the crowd with water canning.

The trial in the case started on March 28, 2023. A 19-year-old girl, a receptionist at Vanantara Resort in Yamkeshwar, Pauri district, went missing on 18 September 2022. Six days later, her body was found 13 km away in the barrage of Cheela Canal.

On the complaint of the girl's father, the police registered a case and arrested the three accused. They are accused of murdering the girl, destroying evidence, and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. Pulkit Arya is currently lodged in Almora, Ankit in Dehradun, and Saurabh in Tehri jail.