A police crackdown before dawn at India Gate in Delhi on Thursday brought a sit-in protest by the parents of Ankita Bhandari, who was murdered in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district in September 2022, to an end after they were briefly detained.
Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had joined the protest the previous evening, along with several party leaders and workers. The protest opposed the appointment of former Uttarakhand BJP in-charge Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the Governor of Sikkim.
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Notably, the parents have demanded that Gautam’s appointment be put on hold until the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged VIP angle in the case is completed.
Deep Dive
Why did Ankita Bhandari's parents protest Dushyant Gautam's appointment as Sikkim governor?
What happened to Ankita Bhandari's parents during the India Gate protest?
What is the CBI investigating in the Ankita Bhandari case?
After Gandhi left, Congress leaders and workers continued the protest, raising slogans. Police moved in before dawn, briefly detained Ankita’s parents and removed the party workers from the site.
Rahul Gandhi's visit
{{/usCountry}}After Gandhi left, Congress leaders and workers continued the protest, raising slogans. Police moved in before dawn, briefly detained Ankita’s parents and removed the party workers from the site.
Rahul Gandhi's visit
{{/usCountry}}Rahul Gandhi arrived with his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and other Congress leaders to express support for Ankita’s parents.
Gandhi’s visit marked his return to the streets of Delhi, albeit for a different cause. On Monday, he led a large march from the Constitution Club to the Supreme Court to file a fresh petition against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
After a 90-minute meeting with the family, the LoP wrote on X, “For four years, Ankita Bhandari’s family has not received justice, but a ‘VIP’ accused has certainly been rewarded with protection and a constitutional position…I and the Congress Party stand with them - in their grief as well as in this fight for justice”.
Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Khera and Congress leader Supriya Shrinate, along with other party members, also joined the sit-in. The protest was held near the junction of the India Gate roundabout and Kartavya Path.
After Gandhi left, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, Uday Bhanu Chib, Mumtaz Patel and other senior party leaders joined the protesters.
Crackdown on protesters
Police personnel were deployed in large numbers as Congress workers continued their sit-in alongside Ankita’s parents, visuals shared by news agencies PTI and ANI showed.
Before dawn, police detained her parents. They were later released.
A video shared by the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), the party’s youth wing, showed protesters raising slogans and waving the national flag as security personnel removed them from the site.
The Congress accused the police of manhandling protesters who had gathered to demand justice in the murder case. The police action took place hours after Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi met Ankita’s parents at the protest site.
Visuals showed police personnel, accompanied by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, approaching the protesters in the dark and taking them away.
Ultimatum, hunger strike warning from Bhandari’s parents
As he was being detained, Ankita’s father gave the Centre 24 hours to cancel Gautam’s appointment. Her mother warned that she would go on a hunger strike.
"We give a 24-hour ultimatum to the government for the cancellation of Dushyant's appointment. Nationwide protests will be launched if the government does not accept our demand," Ankita's father told reporters.
Her mother said, “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.”
Congress slams action
Rahul Gandhi condemned the detention of Bhandari's parents. “4 AM in the morning. While the world was asleep, Ankita Bhandari's parents were taken into custody,” he wrote in a post on X.
“Their crime? They were sitting quietly at India Gate—with heavy shoulders, without any commotion, and simply demanding that Dushyant Gautam should not be made the Governor of Sikkim until the CBI investigation is complete,” he added.
Gandhi reiterated that the Congress party stands with the parents “and will continue to stand—until they get justice.”
Congress leaders Supriya Shrinate, Pawan Khera and Kazi Nizamuddin slammed the police action. They alleged that the authorities were targeting those seeking justice for Ankita Bhandari and opposing Gautam’s proposed appointment.
Shrinate, who was present at the protest site, said, “What kind of action is this? A heartless act against helpless parents who have been seeking justice for four years. Instead of granting them justice, the main accused is being appointed as a Governor, and on top of that, these parents are being treated with such cruelty.”
Congress MP Pawan Khera alleged that the police action showed that democratic freedoms were being eroded.
“This is brutality. You can see democracy coming to an end at India Gate. It is ending at 4 am,” he said.
Who was Ankita Bhandari?
Bhandari, who worked as a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Rishikesh, was murdered on September 18, 2022. Her body was found in the Chilla canal four days later.
Resort owner Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, and his two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, were convicted in the case.
Her family has sought a detailed investigation into the alleged involvement of a VIP in the murder. Gautam has not been named as an accused in any of the cases related to the crime, and the allegations against him remain unproven.
Ankita’s parents have accused Gautam of being responsible. He has denied the allegations.
The family wants investigators to examine Gautam’s role in the case, who served as BJP’s Uttarakhand in-charge from November 2020 to August 2026.
Their demand follows the release of an audio clip by actress Urmila Sanawar in December last year. Sanawar, who claims to be the wife of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, released what she said was a telephone conversation with Rathore in which he allegedly claimed that a BJP leader was involved in the case.
The purported recording triggered protests across Uttarakhand, with demonstrators demanding a CBI probe. The state government ordered an investigation on January 11.
On February 2, the CBI registered a first information report (FIR) against an unknown person to investigate allegations of a VIP’s involvement. Gautam, however, has not been named as an accused in any of the cases related to Ankita’s murder.