Ankita Bhandari's Parents Freed After Overnight Protest In Delhi Over Governor Posting

The parents of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari, who was murdered in Uttarakhand in 2022, were released this morning hours after they were detained while protesting near India Gate in central Delhi while seeking justice for their daughter.

They had been protesting for the entire night before the police action came.

Ankita Bhandari's parents were accompanied by Congress leaders including Pawan Khera after the parents demanded that one of the names linked to the case, BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam, should not take up any position of power until the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) completes its probe.

Gautam has been appointed as the governor of Sikkim. He has also strongly refuted the allegations and started defamation proceedings against them.

Ankita Bhandari worked as a receptionist at a resort called Vantara in Rishikesh. She was killed on September 18, 2022. Her body was recovered from a canal four days later.

"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," Ankita Bhandari's mother told reporters at India Gate.

Her father said the government must cancel the appointment within 24 hours. "If it is not revoked, the people across the entire country will take to the streets, and the government will be held responsible," he said.

The resort's owner Pulkit Arya, who's the son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, and two accomplices have been convicted in the case and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The case took a new turn over allegations that an unidentified VIP was linked to the crime. Thereafter, the parents in December 2025 raised Gautam's name in connection with the allegations.

The Congress has alleged Gautam's appointment to the Sikkim stint seemed aimed at protecting him because a governor cannot be subjected to criminal proceedings while holding office.

A former national general secretary of the BJP, Gautam has also served as the party's in-charge for Uttarakhand.