Ankita Bhandari homicide: Ex-BJP MLA arrested for ‘conspiring to hyperlink senior get together chief to case’ | India Information
3 min learnDehradunJun 15, 2026 03:40 PM IST
Former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore has been arrested by Dehradun police for allegedly conspiring to falsely implicate senior BJP chief Dushyant Gautam within the Ankita Bhandari homicide case, police stated.
On January 5, Dushyant Kumar Gautam, nationwide common secretary of the BJP and the get together’s Uttarakhand in-charge, submitted a written grievance at Dehradun’s Dalanwala police station. He alleged that Rathore (66), the previous MLA from Jwalapur constituency in Haridwar, and actress Urmila Sanawar, who claims to be Rathore’s spouse, in collusion with sure political events, entered right into a felony conspiracy to create and flow into fabricated audio and video clips with the intention of maligning the complainant, his get together, and different senior office-bearers.
Ankita Bhandari was a 19-year-old receptionist at Vanantara resort in Rishikesh, who was killed on September 18, 2022, by its supervisor, Pulkit Arya, the son of former BJP chief Vinod Arya, barely 20 days after she joined the resort.
In December, Sanawar shared an audio clip of an alleged dialog with Rathore to insinuate that Gautam was linked to the case.
Gautam had alleged that the accused posted and disseminated false audio and video recordings on social media, trying to disturb public peace, provoke unrest, and incite dysfunction and riots.
In January, Gautam, who can also be the previous SC Morcha president, had moved the Delhi Excessive Court docket, accusing Sanawar, Rathore, and Opposition events of defaming him. The courtroom had directed the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Get together to take away inside 24 hours social media posts linking Gautam to the homicide. For the reason that movies had been posted, a number of FIRs have been registered in Haridwar and Dehradun.
Talking at a press convention, SSP Dehradun, Parmendra Dobhal, stated that in the course of the course of the investigation, based mostly on witness statements, proof, and different details collected, investigators additionally discovered grounds to invoke the part pertaining to extortion towards Rathore.
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“Appearing on info obtained from an informant, a police crew arrested Rathore on Sunday. He was produced earlier than the courtroom, which remanded him to 14 days of judicial custody and despatched him to Sudhowala District Jail,” the officer stated.
Sanawar and Rathore had earlier claimed that they had been married, and this was adopted by his ouster from the BJP for six years for allegedly violating the Uniform Civil Code, which prohibits polygamy. He later claimed that he was not married to Sanawar.
