Stepping up its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the row over the Pauri Gharwal receptionist murder case, former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat on Monday sat on a “24-hour dharna” at Gandhi park in Dehradun.
The senior Congress leader accused the BJP- led Uttarakhand government of “deliberately not disclosing” the identity of the “VIP” for whom the victim (19-year-old receptionist) was pressurised by the resort owner to provide special services and was later murdered for denying the same.
Also Read: Uttarakhand HC dismisses plea seeking CBI probe in receptionist murder case
Earlier, the BJP was also accused of the destruction of evidence in the murder case by ordering the demolition of part of a resort in Rishikesh owned by expelled BJP leader and former minister Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya, the main accused in the murder case.
Speaking to reporters here, Rawat said, “The government’s official statement in the Vidhan Sabha that ‘no VIP came at the resort but there was a VIP room at the resort and whoever stayed there was called a VIP guest,’ is like rubbing salt on our wounds.”
“The government should reveal the VIP’s name,” he said.
Rawat also demanded that the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the supervision of the high court. The matter is currently being probed by the Special Investigative Team (SIT) on the orders of the high court.
Attacking Rawat, BJP said it is a very sensitive issue and Congress party should restrain itself from doing politics over it.
“The Congress should restrain itself from doing politics over the sensitive matter and respect the judgment of the high court in which it expressed faith in the investigation by the SIT of the Uttarakhand police by dismissing a petition for the CBI investigation,” BJP state media in charge Manveer Singh Chauhan said.
The high court had last week rejected the petition seeking a CBI inquiry into the receptionist murder case and expressed satisfaction with the probe currently being conducted by the SIT of Uttarkhand police. The victim’s father and mother were also parties to the petition.
The SIT submitted the charge sheet last week against Pulkit Arya and two others in connection with the case. On November 4, the HC asked the SIT to file a status report on the matter by November 11.
Also Read: U’khand: SIT submits charge sheet in receptionist murder case
Police said that the 500-page charge sheet, which contains statements of 100 witnesses and 30 pieces of documentary evidence, was filed before the court of Kotdwar judicial magistrate first class Bhawna Pandey on December 19.
The family of the 19-year-old deceased victim on Friday said they would examine the charge sheet to decide whether to move the Supreme Court for a CBI investigation into the matter.
The 19-year-old receptionist from Pauri Garhwal district was allegedly murdered by resort owner and BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit and two others staff members at his resort in Pauri district. According to police, she was allegedly killed for refusing to provide “extra services”, a euphemism for prostitution, to a VIP guest.
The incident took place on September 18, and the woman’s body was recovered from the Chilla canal six days later. Pulkit Arya along with two other accused is now in jail.
According to the police, the three accused namely resort owner Pulkit Arya and his associates Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta were charged under sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code and 5 (1) b of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act that deals with prostitution.
