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The Resort Murder That Shook India | Ankita Bhandari • Desi Crime — Transcript

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0:00Under the soft orange wash of rishies
0:02dust, the air held its breath. A girl,
0:0519, brighteyed, new to the city and
0:08newer still to her first job, walked the
0:10narrow parts of the Vanra resort, hemmed
0:12in by forests on one side and the rush
0:14of the Ganga Canal on the other. It was
0:16the kind of evening where the world
0:18feels hushed, the kind where ordinary
0:20things like a phone ringing unanswered
0:22or a light flickering on and off begin
0:24to feel loaded with meaning. And for
0:27days after that dusk, the only thing
0:29louder than the silence surrounding her
0:30absence was the rising voice of a father
0:33searching for his daughter. Denied help
0:35at every turn. No FIR, no urgency, just
0:38a closed door at every police station he
0:41visited. The roads he walked were met
0:42with apathy even as each hour that
0:45passed pulled Ankita further from reach.
0:47By the time the news broke, it had
0:49already been 6 days. Six days of
0:51unanswered questions. Six days of phone
0:53calls met with lies. Six days before the
0:56Ganga revealed what the system tried to
0:58bury. This is the story of that Rishies
1:01Resort, that 2022 evening and that girl.
1:04This is the story of Ankita Bandari.
1:07[Music]
1:16Heat. Heat.
1:21[Music]
1:27[Music]
1:39[Music]
1:46Hi everyone, welcome to the Di Crime
1:48podcast, a show where we dive deep into
1:49some of the craziest cases from around
1:51South Asia. I'm your host Ashwara
1:53>> and I'm Aran.
1:55>> And the case that I have for you today
1:56is one that shook Utrakhand in 2022.
1:59>> Ashwara, many of our listeners listen to
2:01the ACI crime while they're trying to
2:03sleep, while they're doing chores. Um,
2:06some also say they used dy crime to get
2:08over a lasic surgery or surgeries of
2:10many kinds. Currently, I'm in that
2:12predicament where my mouth is sore as
2:16all hell because of a gum surgery. And
2:19I'm hoping this story and your
2:22storytelling techniques bring me the
2:24same adrenaline and relief
2:25>> and a little bit of distraction from the
2:27pain.
2:27>> A little bit of distraction from the
2:28pain, guys.
2:29>> So, if Aran looks drugged, it's not that
2:31he's taken something. He's just really,
2:33really sick.
2:35Yeah. Um, and if you want more episodes
2:38of DIY crime while you're under uh the
2:41lights of a O theater or or you just,
2:45you know, really like DIY crime, go to
2:47our Patreon or become a YouTube member
2:49where you get access to two extra DIY
2:52crime episodes exclusively over there as
2:54well as a bunch of other things. So,
2:56I'll not go on the charade of what that
2:57all what that's all about. You can check
2:59it if you click the link in the
3:00description. But on with Ankita's case.
3:03Every evening Soni Bandari called her
3:0519-year-old daughter Ankita sometimes
3:07twice. The distance between Dob Shriot
3:10in the Pi Garval district of Uttakhan
3:11where Sony and her husband lived and the
3:13resort in Yamesh where Ankita had just
3:15started her new job as a receptionist
3:17was far. But in their little rituals
3:20they stayed close checking if she'd
3:22eaten if her cough had settled if she
3:23had remembered to take her vitamins. On
3:25the evening of September 17th, 2022,
3:28Sony, Ankita and Ankita's brother AJ,
3:30who lived in Delhi, shared a 34-minute
3:33conference call. They talked about
3:34ordinary things. There was no mention of
3:36trouble. No clue that Anka was scared.
3:39But what the call didn't say would later
3:41haunt them because the next day,
3:43September 18th, was the last day Anka
3:46would ever respond. At 4:30 p.m., Sony
3:49messaged her daughter. No reply. At 8:30
3:52p.m., she texted again asking if Ankita
3:54had eaten dinner. Still nothing. Later
3:57that night, she tried once more. Did you
3:59go to sleep? Silence. She told herself
4:02it was nothing. That maybe Ankita had
4:04dozed off early after a busy day at work
4:06or her phone was on charge in another
4:08room. She didn't panic. Not yet. But the
4:11next day, a call came. Not from her
4:13daughter in Rishies, but from Jamu.
4:16Push. Ankita's friend and confidant was
4:18on the line with her husband Birindra
4:20Singh. He had news. Anka was not at the
4:24resort. She hadn't been seen since the
4:26previous evening. And worse, Pulkitary,
4:29the owner of Vanra Resort, had already
4:31contacted Push to say that Ankita had
4:33been missing since 9:00 a.m. that
4:34morning. He hadn't seen her since then.
4:36Push didn't believe that. He knew she
4:39had been missing for longer because he
4:41too had been trying to reach Anka all
4:42previous night. Something was wrong.
4:45very wrong. And so began Birindra
4:48Singh's long punishing journey, one not
4:50just across districts and jurisdictions,
4:53but through the cold machinery of a
4:54state that refused to listen. But who
4:57was Anka? What is the Vanantra resort?
5:00And how did it end up becoming the
5:02center of this mystery? For that we will
5:04go back in time to the year 2003 when
5:06Ankita Bhari was born.
5:09Ankita Bhari was born on the 11th of
5:11November 2003 in a small village called
5:14Dob Shriot nestled in the hills of Pori
5:16Garval. Bright, disciplined, a quiet
5:19kind of determined she went to the
5:21Bhagat Ram Modern School in PI and
5:23graduated in 2020 scoring 88% in her
5:26intermediate exam. But that year, as she
5:28was graduating, the world found itself
5:30engulfed by the pandemic. Yet Ankita
5:33didn't stop dreaming. With campuses shut
5:34down across the country, Ankita enrolled
5:36in a one-year hotel management
5:38certificate course at the Shiram
5:39Institute in Derdun, where for the first
5:41three months, June 2021 onwards, she
5:44attended online classes on her phone.
5:45>> I thought you were about to say Ranch
5:47College of Hospitality.
5:49>> Oh my god. Nothing annoys me more.
5:52>> Ray College, hotel management.
5:56>> I think
5:59I love it. I I would love for them to
6:02give me an honorary degree.
6:04>> Take that little clip like chop it out
6:05of this episode.
6:06>> Hey, and put that music and tag us. That
6:09would be awesome. But if Ryan calls
6:11you're listening, I would love to get an
6:12honorary PhD in hotel management from
6:14you and I would sing the song.
6:15>> But are you willing to do like the weird
6:17cocktail tricks?
6:18>> Absolutely. That's exactly what I look
6:19like when I do it already. So I mean
6:22solid.
6:22>> Once the campuses reopened, she moved to
6:24Derodun to continue her course. But by
6:27March of 2022, she had to return home.
6:30Her college had asked for another 40,000
6:32rupees in fees. Money her family simply
6:34didn't have. Her father, Virindra Singh,
6:36had already paid 45,000 rupees, but
6:38during the pandemic, he'd lost his job
6:40as a security guard. There was nothing
6:43more that he could give. The institute
6:45even called him directly telling him
6:46that unless the balance was paid, Ankita
6:48wouldn't be issued her certificate. But
6:50there was nothing to be done. Around the
6:52same time in June of 2021, she had also
6:55cleared the entrance exam needed for
6:56nursing school. But without a seat at a
6:58government college and unable to afford
7:00private fees, she let that dream go too.
7:03Still, even though formal education
7:04seemed out of reach at the moment, she
7:06kept trying. She taught herself how to
7:08type on her phone. They didn't have a
7:10laptop at home. Ankita's older brother,
7:12studying to be a chartered accountant,
7:14needed the only one that the family
7:15owned. So, she waited. waited for a time
7:18when she'd get her own, when she could
7:19learn how to operate a computer
7:21properly. Instead, she taught herself
7:23stenography again through her phone.
7:25Then the job at Vanra Resort just came
7:28to her, not through a formal recruitment
7:30process or a job hunt, but through
7:32Instagram, through push. He was her
7:35friend, her online confidant. He lived
7:37in Jammu and when he came across an
7:39opening at a resort near Rishies in
7:40Yameshwar, he spoke to the owner, a man
7:43named Pulkit Arya on Ankita's behalf.
7:45Push knew she had been looking for
7:47something, something to stop the endless
7:48waiting and finally begin her life as a
7:50working professional. And Pushp
7:52explained all of that to Pulkitaria. But
7:54Arya wanted to speak directly to the
7:56applicant. And so Anka called. They
7:58spoke and she got the job. But there was
8:01one condition. The girls who applied had
8:03to agree to live on site in the resort.
8:05Fair enough, Ankita thought. And she
8:07agreed. But little did she know this one
8:10condition would change everything
8:12forever. Anka was supposed to join her
8:14new job from the 1st of September 2022.
8:17Her father Birindra Singh drove her down
8:19on the 28th of August so she could
8:21settle in early. He didn't stay the
8:23night but he stayed long enough long
8:25enough to look around long enough to
8:27worry because something about the resort
8:29irked Birendra the wrong way and he knew
8:32what it was too. There seemed to be no
8:35female employees in sight. He asked
8:37Pulkit directly, "Were there other women
8:39employed here? Was Anka going to be
8:41safe?" Pulkit told him there had been a
8:43couple from Merritt but they were let go
8:45after being caught stealing. After that
8:47it was true there weren't many women
8:49there but he added that his father
8:51Vinodaria owned an ayurvedic candy
8:53factory nearby that employed several
8:55women who all lived in the vicinity. He
8:57said Ankita would be fine. It also
8:59helped that Vinodaria Pulkit's father
9:01wasn't some random factory owner. He was
9:03a former senior BJP leader from Harido
9:06and his older son Ankitary was the vice
9:08president of the Utrahan OBC commission
9:10at the time. Politics in alignment or
9:12not, this was a well-known family
9:14running multiple businesses in the area.
9:16Surely his daughter would be all right.
9:18But before parting ways, Birindra Singh
9:20made one thing very clear to Pulkit.
9:22Quote, "She's my daughter. You are
9:24responsible for her safety." End quote.
9:27Pulkit agreed. 2 days later on the 30th
9:30of August, Birera called Pulkit again
9:32just to remind him of the same thing. He
9:34wanted Pulkit to know someone was out
9:36there looking out for Ankita. But within
9:38just a week into her job, things had
9:41started going wrong within the forested
9:43corridors of Anantra. In one WhatsApp
9:45text to Pushp, Ankita's worries crackled
9:48like a silent SOS. This hotel is so
9:50dirty, she wrote. Days later, she
9:53confided in Pushp that she had been
9:54asked to vacate her initial room and
9:56shift into what used to be Pulkit's room
9:59for a while. My room has been shifted,
10:01Anka had written to Pushp. Why and
10:03where? Push asked. in Sir's room for a
10:06few days because many guests are to
10:08come. Push asked if she thinks that's
10:10safe. It seems safe till now, Anka had
10:13replied. But that tiny semblance of
10:15safety that Anka was feeling would soon
10:17come crashing down. On September 11th,
10:20less than a week before her
10:21disappearance, Anka told Push that
10:23Pulkit had quote tried to kiss her. A
10:26boundary crossed that left her shaken.
10:28When confronted, he offered a feeble
10:30excuse. He was drunk and claimed to have
10:32misbehaved, apologizing afterwards. But
10:35apologies could not erase the horror of
10:37her reality. A 19-year-old woman
10:39cornered in a place that should have
10:40been safe, now haunted by each unwanted
10:43advance. The kiss wasn't a mistake, but
10:46a warning, one that Anangita may be
10:48realized a little too late. Less than 24
10:51hours later, the pressure had surged.
10:53She wrote of being pushed to provide
10:55quote special services to VIPs living in
10:58the resort. She didn't have to worry she
11:00would be compensated for her services.
11:02She was told in a text to push she wrote
11:04just because I'm poor should I sell
11:06myself for 10,000 rupees they're forcing
11:08me to become a when Ankita had refused
11:11the offer in no uncertain terms she was
11:13then threatened with police action with
11:15Pulkit claiming that he would report her
11:17as an ashil or obscene girl to the
11:19police. By September 18th things had
11:22gone from bad to worse. That morning,
11:24Ankita woke up, went about her day. But
11:26just a short while later, at 3 p.m., she
11:29made a desperate call to fellow resort
11:31staffer Manir Singh Jawan. Tears
11:33trembling in every word and pleaded,
11:35"Please bring my bag. Please put it on
11:38the road."
11:52dominated.
11:52>> These were not simple instructions. They
11:54were a silent scream for rescue, a
11:56childlike plea to simply leave. Manir
11:59obeyed, but by the time he reached the
12:01road with her bag in hand, Anka was
12:03gone. Later that day, Amanra staff
12:05member Abhinav recounted seeing Anka
12:08back in that new room she was asked to
12:09move into. And in that room, he saw her
12:12and Pulkit in a struggle. Quote, "At 6
12:15p.m. on the 18th, I saw Pulkit
12:16physically shut Ankita's mouth and
12:18prevent her from speaking over the phone
12:20to someone when she was crying for help.
12:22After which she was in Ankita's room for
12:24an hour behind closed doors." Ankit
12:26Gupta, the assistant resort manager,
12:28also came dancing into her room and then
12:30the windows too were closed by Pulkit as
12:33the boys sitting at the reception could
12:34otherwise see inside. End quote. Abhinav
12:37assumes that after this Pulkit went on
12:39to sexually assault Anka. That evening
12:42Anka had a conversation with Bush at
12:44around 8:00 p.m. while she seemed to be
12:46out somewhere. "Please take me away from
12:48here. I'm very scared," she said in her
12:51final admission of terror. And then by
12:539:00 p.m. her phone went dead. And this
12:55was after Anka had promised to call Push
12:57by 8:30 p.m. That call never came and
13:00the silence was deafening. And in his
13:03panicked state, he ended up contacting
13:04Pulkit, whose phone wasn't switched off,
13:06but who also did not answer for the rest
13:09of the night. After that evening, Anka
13:11was nowhere to be found. When Push
13:13finally was able to get in touch with
13:15Pulkit the next morning, he ended up
13:17recording their calls together where he
13:19confronted Pulkit about Ankita's
13:20whereabouts. Recordings that we're about
13:22to play for you, and after that, we'll
13:24dissect what we heard in it.
13:34No wor
13:58they Oh,
14:26now here is a breakdown of what is
14:27happening in this call. First, some
14:29basics. In this call, Pulkit's version
14:31of the story is that he too has noticed
14:33that Anka is missing and has started a
14:35search for her in the hotel and the
14:37areas around it. But he says that she
14:39has disappeared the morning of the 19th,
14:41the day that this call is taking place.
14:43But Push knows that Ankita has been
14:45unreachable since the night before which
14:47is the 18th despite telling him that
14:49she'll call him. In this call, Push asks
14:52Pulkit directly, "Where is Ankita?"
14:54Pulkit's voice is smooth but evasive. We
14:57left with Ankita in the evening. We went
14:59to Rishies. Came back to the resort
15:01around 9:00. She had dinner. Next
15:03morning she was gone. We started looking
15:05for her. Now by we left with Ankita, he
15:08means him. Ankit Gupta who is the
15:10assistant resort manager and Sor Bhaskar
15:12who's the resort manager. These three
15:14men now in Pushpine have become the
15:17center of this case because they seem to
15:19be the last three people known to be
15:21with Anka. Push now by this point in the
15:23call is wondering why Pulkit didn't pick
15:25up his calls the night before to which
15:26Pulkit had a story. Anka had taken his
15:29phone for the night because her phone
15:30had died and Pulkit had just given it.
15:34Push clearly finds that weird. She asked
15:36for your phone for the night and you
15:37just gave it he asked. Why will I need
15:39my phone at night? Pulkit slammed back
15:41trying to make the situation sound
15:43normal. At one point Push asks if he's
15:45found his phone yet and Pulkit says he
15:47hasn't. when he sent a staff member to
15:49get his phone back from Ankita is when
15:51he was informed that Anka wasn't in her
15:53room. Her dinner from last night was
15:55still lying uneaten and all of her
15:56belongings were still in the room but
15:58Anka was nowhere. Even as Push tried to
16:02piece together what was happening,
16:03Purkit kept circling, deflecting blame.
16:06"Is Ankita with you?" he asked, flipping
16:08the suspicion onto Pushp. "She was
16:10talking to you all the time," he said.
16:12Pushp bewildered and outraged, replied,
16:14"I'm very far away. How can Ankita be
16:17with me? You were the ones with her
16:18last. You need to search for her or
16:20you'll be in serious trouble. At one
16:22point in the call, Push asks if he's
16:24checked the CCTV cameras in the resort.
16:26To which Pulkit gets noticeably
16:28defensive and says firstly that he'll
16:30have to see whether or not the CCTV
16:31cameras are working and secondly that
16:33he's more responsible than Pushp and he
16:35wants to find Ankita more than anything
16:37else. Behind Pulkit's carefully chosen
16:40words though, Pushp was beginning to
16:42understand what no friend ever wants to
16:44believe. That someone he knew, someone
16:46Ankita had once trusted, had already
16:49maybe done something that could not be
16:51undone. And that is when Push finally
16:53contacted Ankita's father.
16:56At 6:30 p.m. on September 19th, Ankita's
16:59father, Birra, now aware of his
17:01daughter's disappearance, took a jeep
17:03from his village and drove to Pi police
17:05station where he laid out the facts. His
17:07daughter hadn't responded in over 24
17:10hours. She hadn't messaged. Her friend
17:12feared she had vanished from her
17:14workplace. The resort owner didn't know
17:15where she was either. It was a matter of
17:17urgency of life and death. But the
17:20officers didn't file anything. Instead,
17:22they told him to go to the Munikiri
17:24Tana. At Munikiri, Birindra Singh told
17:26the story again and they turned him away
17:29again, telling him to try the Kotwali
17:31Tana in Rishies instead. By the time he
17:33reached Kotwali, it was midnight. The
17:36streets were empty. His phone battery
17:37was nearly drained. But his voice hadn't
17:40lost urgency. My daughter is missing, he
17:43said again. Kotwali police told him
17:45something new. The case, they said, came
17:47under the jurisdiction of the Pvari, the
17:49revenue police. They couldn't help. Each
17:52of these inspectors, these Pvaris, these
17:54chalkis had completely ignored the
17:56national guidelines on a zero FIR, which
17:58is an FIR that can be filed at any
18:00police station regardless of the
18:02jurisdiction where the crime occurred.
18:03The term zero refers to the fact that
18:05it's not initially assigned a regular
18:07FIR number but rather a zero and then is
18:10transferred to the right jurisdiction by
18:11the police themselves. This concept
18:13recommended by the justice VHMA
18:15committee formed after the Nirha case
18:16ensures that in emergencies such as
18:18missing person's cases like this one or
18:20sexual assault cases, a victim or their
18:22family need not be turned away. Despite
18:25this being embedded into the national
18:27guidelines though, Anka's father was
18:29meant to experience exactly what the
18:31guidelines were made to prevent. Now
18:33agitated but more worried about his
18:35daughter's whereabouts than ever.
18:37Bireendra spent the night in Rishies in
18:39his jeep and then at the break of dawn
18:42on what was now the 20th he began again.
18:45>> You know I could blame it on bad apples
18:47you know when you say in cops there are
18:49bad apples very few bad apples but
18:51mostly everybody is good. um if it was
18:53one Tana that turned them away
18:55>> that wanted to deflect the work that
18:58comes with filing an FIR cuz you know at
19:02the ACM we all we love talking about
19:03when the police does a great job but it
19:06must be highlighted that these are
19:08issues that especially poor people or
19:10people from lower stratas face uh on a
19:13regular basis if it was one Tana I would
19:16have said bad apples look the other did
19:18take it on
19:19>> it's four police stations that have
19:21deferred heard it.
19:23>> Each hour gone into deferring the case
19:26>> delays the possibility of finding her
19:29alive.
19:30>> And that stat of a missing person's
19:32case, those initial 72 hours, the odds
19:34are decreasing it. They're so critical.
19:36And the worst part is when he finally
19:38does get to the tan of the right
19:39jurisdiction, it's still a mess there.
19:41This time in the morning of the 28th,
19:43Birra tried the Lakshman Tana again. He
19:46was directed to Patwari Chalki Chila.
19:48From there yet another redirection
19:50Kandakal chalky but this time he was
19:53given a contact number for him to reach
19:54out to at that chalky. He was given the
19:56number of Pwari Vibhav Praab. When
19:59Birindra reached this chalky in a hunt
20:01for Vibhav Praab at 11:30 that morning
20:03his now singular source of hope. He
20:05learned something that made his stomach
20:07churn. Pulkitary the man who had
20:09reported Anka missing the owner of the
20:11resort had already spoken to Patari
20:13Vhav. He had suggested that no action be
20:16taken on the disappearance of Ankita for
20:1824 hours and then Pvari Vib Prattab went
20:22on leave without handing over the case
20:24to anyone inside the chalki the now
20:27officiating Pwari Vive Kumar was there
20:30something interesting about what the
20:31Pwari are which is a police force but it
20:34is specifically found in Uttarakhand
20:36they're called Pwari which means a land
20:38or village accountant but that's not
20:39their exact job they're called the
20:41revenue police they're mostly there for
20:43administrative reasons in the hills of
20:45Utakand you can't have proper police
20:48stations and police forces everywhere
20:49due to logistical and financial reasons
20:52and the revenue police the Bwaris do
20:56have some curbed uh powers bestowed upon
21:00them that they can initiate homicide
21:02investigations while not fully execute
21:04them
21:05>> and conduct initial sort of basic
21:06investigations as we will see in this
21:08case
21:09>> so now inside this chalky the new Pvari
21:11was there Vive Kumar but so were others
21:13Pulk Kitara his father Vinodarya a man
21:16of political influence Pulkit's wife two
21:18members of the resort staff Sorab and
21:20Ankit while this group spoke to Patari
21:23Vive Kumar Birindra was told to wait
21:25outside and he sat he sat for 3 hours
21:28but no one called him in eventually he
21:30entered the room himself demanding
21:32answers only to be told to wait again
21:35and like that another hour passed
21:37finally unable to endure the silence any
21:39longer he walked in and demanded his
21:41daughter's disappearance be recorded He
21:44needed to file an official report but
21:46Pvari Vivekumar refused. Pulkit's report
21:49had already been filed. That would
21:51suffice. He told the father but
21:52Bireindra wasn't taking no for an
21:54answer. And so giving in Vive Kumar
21:56allowed him to file a report if it can
21:59even be called that because in that
22:01report Birindra was allowed to write one
22:03single sentence. My daughter is missing.
22:07No receipt for this report was ever
22:09given to Bendra. Then came the second
22:11blow. He was allowed to read Pulkitary's
22:13missing report. In it, he claimed that
22:15Anka had been depressed, that he and
22:18others had taken her out to cheer her
22:20up, to eat things she enjoyed. Then they
22:22had all returned to the resort together,
22:24and that evening was the last time they
22:25saw her. By next morning, they
22:27discovered she was missing. Birera felt
22:30the floor slipping beneath his feet. He
22:32knew his daughter. He knew how excited
22:34she was about her job, how it was only
22:36now beginning to feel like her life was
22:38finally taking off. He didn't believe
22:40she was depressed. Certainly not after
22:42all the suspicious behavior he had
22:43witnessed in the two days he had spent
22:45looking for her already. And so he
22:47pleaded with Patari Vivekumar urging him
22:49to visit the resort to see the scene for
22:51himself to interview other staff members
22:54who may know something instead of just
22:56taking Pulkit's word on the matter. And
22:58so with Vive Kumar and to Birindra
23:00arrived at the Vanra resort the
23:02beautiful destination that had become
23:03the last known location of his beautiful
23:05daughter. And inside the resort, the
23:08truth stared back at the group in the
23:10form of broken wires.
23:12>> Every CCTV line at the resort had been
23:14cut. In Birra's own account of what
23:16happened that day, quote, "We went to
23:18the resort and we were shocked to see
23:20that all the wires of the entire CCTV
23:22camera system were cut off. Since I had
23:24the recordings sent by PushP, I showed
23:27it to the Pvari. The Pvari called staff
23:29members one by one to talk to them, but
23:31Pulkit got very irritated and got up to
23:33hit us. The Paratvari had listened to
23:35each recording and despite that he did
23:38not report the case to higher
23:39authorities. End quote. These recordings
23:41that Ankita's father mentions,
23:43recordings provided to him by Push are
23:45the many, many screenshots of his chats
23:47with Anka where she details the horrors
23:49she was experiencing inside the walls of
23:51Anantra and the audio recordings that
23:53Push had managed to make of his calls
23:55with Pulkit. Push also had call
23:57recordings with hotel staff members,
23:59those claiming they prepared food for
24:00her at 10:45 p.m. on the 18th. The Pvari
24:04called them in one by one, but something
24:06about the trajectory of this
24:07investigation really pissed Pulkit off
24:09to the point that he eventually almost
24:11got into a physical altercation with the
24:12staff members being questioned. But even
24:15then, despite all of this odd and
24:17suspicious behavior despite the CCTV
24:19wires and the chat recordings, Vive
24:21Kumar did nothing. And this is when her
24:24father decided he will move mountains to
24:26get to the bottom of his daughter's
24:27disappearance. He may not be a man of
24:29influence in front of those he was
24:31dealing with but there was a chance
24:32Ankita was still alive. Birindra Singh
24:35now turned to the child welfare
24:36committee. He called committee member
24:38Shri San Singh from Pori Garbal pleading
24:40with him to intervene. San Singh did
24:43call the Patwari asking them to lodge an
24:44FIR and begin an investigation. But by
24:47September 20th nothing had moved. No FIR
24:50no investigation. So Virinda reached
24:52higher. He contacted someone who had
24:54access to Ritu Kanduri, the speaker of
24:56the Utrakhan assembly and he succeeded.
24:59Kanduri reached out to the district
25:01magistrate to get the case moving.
25:03Birindra also visited Kusum Kandwal,
25:05chairperson of the state women's
25:06commission who called the DM in front of
25:08him. Then he made his way to the
25:10director general of police. The DGB
25:12finally called the DM again and the SP
25:14of Bi Garval and that's when things
25:17finally shifted. On September 22nd, the
25:20district magistrate transferred the case
25:22from the revenue police to the regular
25:24police force. Ankit's missing person's
25:26report originally filed by Pulkitary was
25:28upgraded to an FIR. The case moved to
25:31the Lakshman julatana and landed in the
25:33hands of ASP Shakhar Syal and Syal moved
25:37quickly. He based on Pulkit's account
25:39that Ankita was taken to Rishih the
25:41night she vanished went on a hunt for
25:43CCTV footage and he found something. He
25:46uncovered chilling footage from a
25:48barrage on Chila road and from resort
25:50cameras showing Ankita climbing onto a
25:52scooter behind Pulkara. Resort manager
25:54Sor Bhaskar and assistant resort manager
25:57Ankit Gupta followed close behind on a
25:59motorcycle. Now the inspector raided
26:01Vanra resort and quickly arrested
26:03Sorhasar now confirmed to be one of the
26:06last three men known to be with Ankita
26:08in Rishies. The others had fled though
26:11but by the early hours of the 23rd
26:13Vinodaria Pulkit's father brought his
26:15son Pulkit and the assistant resort
26:17manager Ankit Gupta in to surrender.
26:20Later that day they were arrested.
26:22Birera still remembers the moment in the
26:24police station when Vinodary had the
26:26gall to ask him has the girl been found?
26:29Bindra's voice did not shake. Ask your
26:32son he said. In Rishiesh the public
26:34began protesting. They demanded that
26:36Ankita be produced within 24 hours. They
26:39wanted pressure to build on the accused
26:41and on the police who had done very
26:42little for so many of the initial few
26:44days. And as it happens, when pressure
26:47builds outside the police station, it
26:49begins to build inside too. And within
26:51hours, a confession came. All three men
26:54last seen with Ankita now suddenly knew
26:57where she was. She was in Rishies where
26:59they had taken her that night. Not in a
27:02hotel, not in a kidnapped home, not with
27:04a friend. She was in the Chila Canal
27:06where she had allegedly fallen as an
27:08accident after an argument and a
27:10struggle. But the moment the men
27:12confessed within hours in the dead
27:14evening of the 23rd of September,
27:16something unspeakable happened.
27:18>> If you watch F1, you would you'd see
27:21that the teams dial into the rider and
27:24say, "Plan, plan A, plan B, plan C." And
27:28it feels like these guys have gone
27:30through plan which was deny deny deny
27:32and use their power. But they had plan
27:35already sorted which is plan B. All
27:37right. If they, you know, if they see
27:40the evidence for what it is, not even
27:42investigate, just see it for what it is,
27:44they'll know we've done something
27:46>> because all three are aligned on the
27:47story.
27:47>> Yeah, they're aligned on the story. So,
27:49for them to quickly align on a second
27:51story, that's usually something that's
27:52decided already. It's not like they're
27:55being interviewed in front of each other
27:57more likely than not. Um, but I have a
27:59sinister feeling that these guys
28:02>> cuz I I really hate I'm
28:05>> pissed as all hell because a man, a dad
28:07has had to go through so many rungs
28:10>> to get something that is the police's
28:13duty that the taxpayer money goes to
28:16that we fund. All of us combined, we
28:18fund this, right? And their sole duty, I
28:21understand they're not well paid. I
28:23understand there are so many more issues
28:24with that. But in that moment, your sole
28:27duty is to help that woman,
28:29>> is to help that man find his daughter,
28:31right?
28:32>> And you have made him take rounds and
28:34rounds and rounds and lost so much
28:36precious time that could have maybe
28:38helped her survive if at all. Um, so
28:42yeah, I'm pissed. But the point being, I
28:44think these, pardon my French, bastards,
28:48have uh some a plan C up their sleeve.
28:50>> But they're so bad at their planning.
28:51Everything is so easy to just rip to
28:53shreds.
28:54>> Yeah.
28:54>> Quickly after this confession, on the
28:56same day, on the evening of the 23rd of
28:58September, something insane happened.
29:01The scene of Ankita's nightmare was
29:03erased. A JCB ordered by local
29:06authorities and under the supervision of
29:08Yameshwar Emily Reu Bisht bulldozed her
29:11room at the Vanantra resort, the very
29:14space where her screams had echoed where
29:16evidence of her struggle most likely
29:18existed and would have helped seal this
29:20case to bring justice. As dawn broke,
29:23the authorities claimed they were
29:24removing illegal construction. But
29:26suspicion ran deeper. Former DJP Alog
29:30Bil Lal warned that such hasty
29:31demolition quote must have destroyed
29:34crucial evidence end quote. A day later,
29:36a group of men set the same resort
29:38ablaze. Mattresses soaked in possible
29:41forensic traces found floating in the
29:43pool. And it didn't end there. On
29:45October 30th, a fire broke out in that
29:48Gooseberry candy factory owned by
29:49Pulkitary's father, also located on the
29:52premises, fueling whispers of another
29:54deliberate strike to destroy what
29:56remained. In those flames, it wasn't
29:58just buildings that burned. Ankit's last
30:01moments flickered out in the darkness,
30:03followed by fire and earth before
30:05justice could light the way. But
30:07obviously, this fight for answers for a
30:09young woman turned into political power
30:11play. Quote, "Is the government
30:13destroying the evidence by ordering the
30:14bulldozer action at the resort? Police
30:16failed to secure the custody of the
30:18accused. The Dhami government's
30:19intention is not pure," said Congress's
30:22state chief Karan Mahara. BJP state
30:24media in charge Manir Singh Chawan
30:26clapped back saying quote many such
30:28incidents took place during the Congress
30:30rule but they didn't even file FIRS and
30:32saved criminals unlike them BJP treats
30:35criminals like criminals end quote to
30:37the police and to Ankita's family though
30:39why these fires were lit and what that
30:41means for this case wasn't what mattered
30:43the most in the moment though with
30:45almost all possibilities for forensic
30:47evidence now gone they needed to get on
30:49with the next best thing they could do a
30:52hunt for Ankita's body where the men had
30:54confessed it was inside the Chila Canal.
30:57And it was 6 days after she vanished
30:59that the Ganga gave her back. On
31:01September 24th, as dawn broke, teams
31:04from the state's disaster response force
31:06comb the Chila Canal near the power
31:08intake barrage where the currents run
31:10cold and swift. After hours of
31:12searching, they found her battered,
31:15cold, her face barely recognizable. She
31:18was the same girl who vanished just days
31:20before, full of dreams. They had found
31:22her lifeless, face down, carried by the
31:25currents she once crossed. The SDRF
31:28official revealed, quote, "The search
31:30operation was going on from 7:00 a.m. We
31:32took out the body of a woman. Relatives
31:34came here and identified it to be the
31:36body of Anka Bhari. Anka's father
31:38remembers seeing his daughter's body
31:40that day and the things that stood out
31:41to him." Quote, "Her body was recovered
31:43from the barrage 6 km away. It was stuck
31:46at the barrage. I was shocked to see her
31:48in that state. Her body was intact and
31:50fish had not attacked it. It was not
31:52swollen although it had been in the
31:54water for 6 days. This remains a mystery
31:56to me even today. She had five injuries
31:59on her. Her teeth were broken. There
32:01were deep scratches on her forearms. Her
32:03back and the palms were black. End
32:05quote. Shortly after, at 2 p.m. the day
32:08she was found, her preliminary autopsy
32:10began. And shortly after, the results
32:12were out. The official postmortem listed
32:14her cause of death asphixxia consequent
32:16upon antimming. In clinical terms, it
32:20meant Ankita was alive, though possibly
32:22unconscious when she entered the water.
32:24Whether she was pushed in after being
32:26struck or was dragged remains uncertain.
32:28A definitive answer, her father said,
32:30would lie in the chemical analysis of
32:32her viscera. During the inquest, like I
32:35said before, Birindra Singh noticed five
32:37visible injuries on her body. But when
32:39the postmodern report came back, one of
32:41those wounds, the one on her back, had
32:43vanished from record. He asked another
32:46question too, one no one could answer.
32:48If she had been in the water for 6 days,
32:51why hadn't her body bloated? Was it
32:54something to do with the way she died?
32:56But the most contested section of the
32:57report concerned what had and hadn't
33:00been done to her. The report stated,
33:02quote, "There was no evidence of
33:04injuries suggestive of forceful
33:06penetrative sexual assault. However, the
33:08possibility of sexual assault cannot be
33:10ruled out." End quote. samples were
33:13preserved from her vestibule, lower and
33:15upper vaginal cavities and rectum dried
33:17as per forensic protocol for semen
33:19detection and DNA analysis. And yet the
33:22Utrahan police issued a statement
33:24declaring that rape had been ruled out.
33:27That conclusion based solely on the
33:29absence of visible injuries wasn't just
33:31premature, it was dangerous. In sexual
33:34violence cases, especially those
33:36involving delayed autopsies or
33:38compromised evidence, medical reports
33:40are not the only truth. They are one
33:42piece of a much larger picture. In
33:44Ankit's case, that picture is crowded
33:47with red flags. The night she died, she
33:49had spent an hour behind closed doors
33:51with Pulkitary. Witness Abhinav says she
33:53screamed. He said the resort driver may
33:56have seen it all. Pulkit dragging her
33:57inside, closing the door. The absence of
34:00external injuries does not mean the
34:02absence of rape. The Supreme Court of
34:04India has said this time and time again
34:06including in Krishna versus the state of
34:08Hana in 2012. RIP the court held can be
34:11proven without bodily injury and yet
34:14Uttakhan police closed the door on that
34:16line of inquiry. What the water may have
34:18erased the circumstances though screamed
34:21out loud. the chats, the testimonies,
34:24the forced room change, the isolated
34:26time in Pulkit's room, Ankita's fear,
34:28her refusal to reduce this to a
34:30checklist of injuries is to deny her
34:32truth and undermine a decade of hard
34:35fought Jewish prudence since Nirva. And
34:37now even in her death, the state tried
34:40to control her story. After Ankita's
34:42body was recovered, the police insisted
34:44that her cremation be carried out in
34:46Harido. But for the residents of Dob
34:48Shri, the cremation grounds lay in
34:50Shinagar. It was only after repeated
34:52insistence from the family that her body
34:54was finally brought there and placed in
34:56the mochery at the base hospital. Then
34:59when Birindra Singh and his family
35:00wanted to take her home for just one
35:02night to say goodbye on their terms,
35:04they were stopped. The police and local
35:07magistrate instructed them to conduct
35:08the cremation the following morning at
35:10the hospital grounds itself without ever
35:13taking her home. Birera's wife was
35:15brought down from their village and
35:16placed in a PWD guest house. Birindra
35:19and his son were deliberately kept
35:21apart, denied direct communication with
35:23their messages routed through officials.
35:26Quote, "They were putting pressure on us
35:27that we just dispose of the body at the
35:29earliest." Pire said outside the
35:32mochery, people had gathered protesters,
35:34students, neighbors. There was an
35:36agitation, an urgent call for a second
35:39postmortem, a demand for 1 k in
35:41compensation and a job for Ankita's
35:43brother. These protesters outside also
35:45called for the suspension of the
35:47Padwaris and the policemen who delayed
35:48the investigation. The demands, Birinda
35:51said, still stand. At around 6:00 p.m.,
35:54the pressure intensified. The chief
35:56minister called urging the family to
35:57carry out the cremation immediately. The
36:00district magistrate and SP of Bi echoed
36:02the instruction. Weighed down by
36:05administrative pressure, Birindra Singh
36:07agreed. That evening, between 6:00 and
36:097:00 p.m., Ankita was cremated in
36:11Shinagar. But the cruelty didn't end
36:13there. The family, who were all being
36:15kept separately, were told that Ankita's
36:18mother was in the ICU, too unwell to
36:20attend. Birra was led to believe that
36:22the trauma had broken her physically,
36:24but later he learned the truth. It was
36:27all lies. She was neither critical nor
36:29medically sick, he said. Even in her
36:31final moments, Ankita was denied her
36:33mother's farewell. Then when the family
36:36received a digital copy of the final
36:37postmortem report, it contained no
36:40mention of broken teeth, an omission
36:42that raised new doubts for the family.
36:44But now that Ankita was cremated, the
36:46system hoped that these doubts and this
36:49case would cool down. It didn't. On
36:51October 16th, students from Rishiesh and
36:54Dadun launched a Tiranga, aricolor march
36:57for justice, starting from Ankita's
36:59home. Their destination was Vanantra
37:01resort, the site of her last known
37:02hours. They were turned away. The march
37:05ended at a dhana site in Rishies the
37:07next day and ended with 32 protesters
37:10detained. With all of this pressure, the
37:12wheels of justice began to turn though,
37:14but only after months of inactions,
37:16petitions, and protests. In October
37:192022, Uttarakhan's high court instructed
37:21the special investigation team, the SIT,
37:24to submit a status report along with a
37:26case diary by the 3rd of November,
37:28demanding transparency after questions
37:30were raised about destroyed evidence and
37:32delayed action. A follow-up order in
37:35November confirmed the court's
37:36requirements of details, particularly
37:38around the bulldozing of the resort
37:39before evidence could be secured. The
37:42legal saga officially began in Kotwis
37:44District Court on January 30th, 2023.
37:48The prosecution delivered a detailed
37:50500page charge sheet presenting
37:52testimony from 47 witnesses including
37:54hotel staff, law enforcement, and
37:56forensic experts, as well as CCTV and
37:58WhatsApp evidence. Court proceedings
38:01unfolded under high security. During the
38:03trial, since DNA evidence was nil, one
38:06key piece of circumstantial evidence
38:08became the center, that final CCTV
38:10footage in what is called the last scene
38:12theory. The last scene theory in law is
38:15a principle used primarily in
38:16circumstantial evidence cases like this
38:18one to help establish guilt when direct
38:20evidence is lacking. The theory suggests
38:22that if a person is last seen with the
38:24victim and the death occurs within a
38:26short period of that sighting, the
38:28burden of explanation shifts to the
38:30person last seen with the victim and
38:32that CCTV footage put Pulkit, Ankit and
38:35Sorab right next to Anka minutes before
38:37what is considered to be her time of
38:39death. The prosecution came forward to
38:41allege that the confrontation began when
38:43Ankita threatened to expose illegal
38:45activities at the resort leading to a
38:47scuffle before the men threw her into
38:49the water. They called multiple
38:51witnesses including a former employee at
38:53Vanra, a receptionist named Risha who
38:55described her horrors working there. She
38:58and her husband who both worked at the
39:00resort revealed how she too was
39:02pressured by Pulkit to get into it with
39:04the VIP guests at the resort. When the
39:06couple resisted, they were both
39:08threatened by Pulkit and a local Patwari
39:10police officer. They had also both
39:12firsthand witnessed the countless drugs
39:14and women that flowed through the veins
39:16of Anantra like water, making it an
39:18unsafe work environment for any woman,
39:20sex worker or not, which is what had
39:22prompted the couple to quit their job
39:23before Ankita joined. Now, while the
39:26prosecution argued Ankita's death was
39:27homicide fueled by sexual coercion and a
39:30cover up to protect Wanara's history of
39:32selling drugs and selling sex within its
39:33walls, the defense maintained a
39:35different theory. They argued that
39:37Ankita was depressed, upset about
39:39wanting to marry her friend, for which
39:41she would have to run away from home.
39:42They claimed she took her own life by
39:44jumping into the canal. Then after two
39:47years and eight months of back and forth
39:49over witnesses and theories and evidence
39:51came a verdict with national
39:53repercussions. On May 30th 2025, the
39:57Kotwar Sessions court convicted
39:59Pulkitary, Sor Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta.
40:02>> Wow.
40:04>> Thank you.
40:04>> I think this is cuz this is not even the
40:06higher supreme.
40:08>> Yeah, they did it.
40:09>> Let's go. Let's you guy. I'm so pissed
40:13at these guys.
40:14>> I feel you. Oh my god.
40:17>> Mhm. And it actually gets better from
40:18here. This is Yeah.
40:19>> You know what, Ashwara? You know what?
40:22>> My tooth pain is better now.
40:24>> I'm so glad.
40:25>> My tooth pain is better.
40:26>> Nothing else came. This came
40:27>> with some justice. I I was hope. I was
40:30completely hopeless about this case.
40:32>> All three men were to receive life
40:34imprisonment under multiple charges
40:36including murder, destruction of
40:37evidence, criminal conspiracy, sexual
40:39harassment, and violations of the
40:41Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. The
40:44trial was hailed as a breakthrough. But
40:45the fight wasn't over. While the family
40:47do breathe a sigh of relief, they were
40:49left heartbroken at multiple points
40:52across this ordeal. They have openly
40:54criticized the SIT's pace and its
40:56independence, alleging continued
40:58political pressure and cover up. Their
41:00call for a CVI inquiry strengthened by a
41:02high court petition from journalist Ashi
41:05is still unresolved. A Supreme Court
41:07hearing in March 2023 reviewed a sealed
41:10government status report, but no
41:12decision has been made on whether the
41:13case will be handed over to federal
41:14investigators. The question of who the
41:17VIP was that Anita was being coerced
41:19into prostitution with is still a
41:21mystery that looms large over this case
41:22and may never be resolved.
41:39Anka Bandari's story isn't just about
41:42one girl's murder. It's about cracks in
41:44a system that failed her at every turn.
41:46In Uttakhan's booming tourism industry,
41:48there are still no internal complaint
41:50committees, no enforcement of the
41:52Vishaka guidelines or the sexual
41:53harassment of women at workplace act of
41:552013, leaving countless young women like
41:58Anga vulnerable and unprotected. But
42:00there is a silver lining. When public
42:02outrage forced action, the BJP expelled
42:04Vinodary and Ankitary Pulkit's father
42:07and brother after Pulkit's own
42:08confession on September 24th, 2020. But
42:11Vari Vib Prattab Singh who sat on
42:13Ankita's missing person's complaint was
42:15eventually suspended and arrested after
42:17the SIT team took over. But MLA Reu Bish
42:20who oversaw the bulldozing of the crime
42:22site remains in office despite her name
42:24emerging in court testimony about
42:26erasing evidence. Today Ankita lies
42:28beneath the earth. Not just because
42:30someone killed her, but because
42:32institutions refused to shield her. Her
42:34murder sparked arrests and convictions,
42:36but it also exposed a system still
42:38stacked against women. Until workplaces
42:41create safe channels for reporting
42:42abuse, until the powerful are held
42:44accountable beyond token expulsions,
42:46Ankit's death will continue to echo as
42:48both tragedy and warning. The verdict
42:51delivered at Kotwoir, life sentences for
42:53her killers, is a milestone, not a
42:55destination. Because real justice means
42:57rewriting the structures that allowed
42:59this horror to happen in the first
43:00place.
43:02If you like what we do here at AC
43:04Studios and absolutely love what we're
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