Like the ghost of Banquo in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the ghost of 19-year-old receptionist Ankita Bhandari has come to haunt the BJP party in Uttarakhand. With the public pressure mounting in the state, CM Dhami has finally approached the centre to hold a CBI enquiry in the case.

Ankita was murdered in the most brutal manner by Pulkit Sharma, the son of BJP minister without portfolio Vinod Arya, who was a key member of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s cabinet. Ankita had gone missing from the Vanantra Resort in the Pauri district on September 18, 2022. Her body was recovered five days later with several injury marks from the Chilla barrage on the Ganga-river canal near Rishikesh.

Two days before her death, Ankita had told her boyfriend, Pushpdeep, that Pulkit had been pressuring her to provide ‘extra services to a VIP’. When Pushpdeep asked whether the ‘extra service’ referred to sex, she replied in the affirmative, saying she was being offered Rs 10,000 for it. She reportedly told Pushpdeep that “being a poor woman does not mean I am willing to sell myself”.

Following her death, Pushpdeep released a video in which she is heard saying, “I’m with these guys. I’m very scared.” The resort staff have attested on affidavit that Ankita was screaming and crying when she was being taken away by Pulkit and his associates.

Ankita had barely worked in the Vanantra resort for three weeks. She had confided in Pushpdeep that once she had collected her salary for the month, she would quit. She........

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