The Congress and several social organisations held dharnas across Uttarakhand on Wednesday to mount pressure on the Pushkar Singh Dhami government to arrest the “VVIP” linked to the receptionist murder case.
The 19-year-old receptionist at a resort in Rishikesh was killed on September 18, 2022, for allegedly refusing to offer “special service to the VVIP”.
A court at Kotdwar in Pauri Garhwal district sentenced Pulkit Arya, the owner of the resort and son of a now-suspended BJP leader, manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta to life imprisonment in the case in May this year.
The protesters on Wednesday burnt the effigy of the state government and alleged that the “VVIP” was still out of jail because he belonged to the ruling dispensation.
Mukesh Negi, former Congress president of Karnprayag in Chamoli district, who led a protest there, said: “A video is circulating on social media in which two people associated with the ruling party are taking the name of the VVIP. Every person in the state now knows who the VVIP is for whom a 19-year-old girl was killed. We will continue our protest till he is arrested.”
State Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal said the receptionist’s friend had testified in court that she had told him about the resort’s owner pressuring her to extend undue favour to the VVIP.
“It is on court record that she was terrified and wanted to leave the job, but the owner of the resort and his two friends took her to a canal, thrashed her and threw her into the water,” he said.
“The VVIP is a national leader of the BJP,” he added.
Pulkit’s father Vinod Arya was the chairman of the Uttarakhand Mati Kala (Pottery) Board at the time of the crime. He was suspended from the BJP after protests that accused the state government of shielding the killers.
The police had initially refused to register a case against Pulkit but finally succumbed to public pressure.
Dhami said the resort had already been demolished and the killers had been serving life terms. “There is no need to play politics on this issue,” he said.