Sitting on the road after their march was blocked, Shalini chanted with the rest of the protesters: “Mukhyamantri maun hai, VIP kaun hai (The Chief Minister is silent, who is the VIP).”

The current wave of protests over the 2022 murder follows a fresh set of allegations after former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore’s wife, Urmila Sanawar, claimed that a VIP who sought sexual favours from Bhandari was a senior leader called “Gattu”. She released an audio clip in which Rathore purportedly identifies the VIPs as BJP national general secretary Dushyant Gautam and another senior party leader. Rathore later claimed the clip was AI-generated and accused Sanawar of defaming the party. Gautam has denied any role in the incident.

Police have registered two cases against the duo under the IT Act and issued a notice. Although the duo have remained absent from the public eye ever since, a sustained movement has shaped up following Sanawar’s statements, with protesters demanding that a CBI probe be recommended into the incident.

Longstanding allegation

The allegations regarding the involvement of a “VIP” have been prevalent ever since the murder in 2022. Bhandari was killed, allegedly for refusing to render sexual favours to a VIP, by the manager of the Vanantara resort, Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya. The body of the 19-year-old, who was a receptionist, was recovered from a canal in Rishikesh on September 24, 2022, six days after she was reported missing. Vinod Arya was subsequently expelled from the BJP.

Throughout the case, the defence had maintained that Bhandari died by suicide. They claimed she was depressed because she wanted to leave her home and marry a friend, but that he would not have her, prompting her to feel trapped in the job. This, they claimed, led her to suicide.

The prosecution examined 47 witnesses and relied on evidence including WhatsApp chats. Her chats from the time she came to Vanantara Resort, until the date of the incident, had allegedly revealed that she was disturbed by the accused’s behaviour and “their obscene proposals” for extra services and wanted to leave the resort. In one of the chats, she had purportedly written, “I am poor, but will I sell myself for Rs 10,000?”

The prosecution had argued that on September 11, Ankita told Pushpdeep, her friend, that Pulkit Arya had tried to kiss her. On September 17, in a chat, the deceased told Pushpdeep that a VIP guest was expected at the resort on Monday, and that one Ankit Gupta had told her she would be paid up to Rs 10,000 for providing “extra service” to the guest.

Pulkit Arya was convicted under sections of murder, causing disappearance of evidence, sexual harassment and under the Immoral Trafficking Act. Two others, Ankit Gupta and Saurabh Bhaskar, were punished under sections of murder, causing disappearance of evidence, and under the Immoral Trafficking Act.

‘Personal to every woman’

At the protest, Shalini says the unsafe conditions for women and the insecurity posed by unemployment make Bhandari’s case personal to every woman. “Uttarakhand was made to provide this security, and after all these years, if we are going back to the same practices we tried to move away from, then what is the significance of an agitation (for statehood) that people gave their lives for?” she said.

Shalini cites the NARI report, published by a data science company in August last year, that placed Dehradun among the 10 most unsafe cities of the country. “Ankita had to pay with her life to wake the people up. How many women will have to give up their lives before the government takes action to make it easier? The fault lies in us; had we reacted when smaller crimes and incidents took place, this would not have happened,” Shalini said.

Shalini, who is preparing for public service examinations, is well acquainted with the woes of the youth. “There are few opportunities, and we are forced to work in sectors for a meagre pay to support our families,” she says. Bhandari had enrolled for a one-year certificate course at a hotel management institute in Dehradun, but six months into her course, with her fee arrears climbing, she dropped out and returned home. A month before she could draw her first salary as a receptionist, she was killed.

Sunday’s protest was attended and backed by the Opposition parties, including the Congress, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, Uttarakhand Swabhiman Morcha (which led the UKSSSC paper leak protests in September), and left parties such as the CPI(M), CPI(ML), and SUCI.

‘Existing dissatisfaction’

Ajay Negi, from Lansdowne, came down to the capital for the protests. He says that the resurfaced allegations only fuelled the existing anger and public dissatisfaction at the government. “Over the last few years, we have seen several episodes of extreme weather events and wildlife conflicts, as a result of which the agriculture-dependent economy has been affected. The jobs we earlier had, including in the Army, have become more precarious, forcing people to go to other states as cooks and receptionists for salaries as low as Rs 10,000,” Negi says.

He further says that the leadership in the state has been “outsourced to the puppets of Delhi”. “(Chief Minister Pushkar Singh) Dhami lost the election and was still imposed on us. In a party as undemocratic as the BJP, senior leaders like Dushyant will remain unaffected. The party has yet to take any action despite the anger in the state,” he claims.

An environmentalist among the protesters, Atul Kumar, who is originally from Lucknow and works in Dehradun, says it is the duty of the authorities to look into the allegations. “The government is running away from this responsibility. The SIT has been evidently working under pressure from the government since the beginning, be it the Centre or the state government. Those names that had surfaced even back then did not figure in the list of accused charged with the offences and later convicted. A capable institution should be given the authority over the case. The motives of central agencies have time and again been questioned over the last decade. Only time can tell if they will conduct an independent probe, but the case should go to such an agency,” Kumar says.

He also spoke of a fear of authority among the people, alleging that this was instilled by the government, law enforcement agencies and “fringe groups” that have led to an aversion to mobilisation. “The response to these issues is sporadic because of this fear. This is just a small minority that has come out today. Many of those who are aware of the situation have not stepped out, fearing retribution,” he says.

A state-wide strike has been called by protesters on January 11 — an ultimatum for the government to accept their demands and recommend a CBI probe before they launch a civil disobedience agitation, said Kanishk Badiyari of the Garhkumaon alliance from Tehri Garhwal. He says this is the first time since late 2023, when the state was rocked by demands for land legislation, that such a movement is taking place.

“In fact, the Ankita incident is a breaking point. The hills are being haunted by bears and leopards; snow has not fallen in many regions, which usually see good precipitation in December; the state has lost 45,000 hectares of forest land in 25 years; paper leak; excess by the police in the state — these are not reported by the national media. People only see the immediate cause, but there are many issues that have stoked up these sentiments,” Badiyari said.

When a fellow protester pastes a sticker “VIP?” on the signage of the Hathibarkala police chowki, Badiyari says, “We all know who it is. What we need is an investigation. There is a trend of fetishisation of pahari women and girls in films and social media that we dismiss until something like this happens. We will continue this fight until all the guilty are punished and Ankita gets justice.”