Lucknow: Uttarakhand police are hunting not just for actress Urmila Sanawar who has linked BJP leader Dushyant Gautam to a resort receptionist’s murder, but also for her ex and former party MLA Suresh Rathore who she claims gave her the purported information.

No case is known to have been registered yet against Gautam — BJP national general secretary, former Rajya Sabha MP and the party’s minder for Uttarakhand — despite the formation of a seven-member special investigation team to probe "all aspects". Gautam claims he is innocent.

"Urmila's last location was somewhere between Punjab and Delhi. The former MLA (Rathore) is hiding in Uttar Pradesh," an Uttarakhand police source said.

"We’ll form teams to bring them here if they don’t come by themselves and give their statements to the police."

Rathore, suspended last week by the BJP on disciplinary charges, has had a police notice stuck on the front wall of his Dehradun home, summoning him to the Nehru Colony police station.

Earlier, after Haridwar police summoned him to Jwalapur police station, his wife Ravindra Kaur had submitted an application on his behalf saying he was away on personal business and would be back soon.

Urmila, a TV actress who alleges Rathore "married" her four years ago without revealing he already had a wife, has been in hiding since making her explosive allegation implicating Gautam in a sleaze racket and murder.

She has uploaded videos on social media expressing fear that the police or the ruling party might have her killed. This week, a Haridwar court issued a non-bailable warrant against her in a blackmailing complaint filed against her by a relative of Rathore last March.

Urmila has claimed on social media and TV interviews that she had recorded conversations with Rathore in which he claimed that the 19-year-old receptionist was murdered for refusing to provide "special services" (sex) to Gautam.

Urmila has hinted that many more BJP leaders were clients of the alleged prostitution racket run at the resort, though she has named only one.

She also claims to possess independent evidence — apart from audios of Rathore’s conversations — to prove their involvement. All this makes her and Rathore a danger to the BJP.

Police from the Jwalapur, Baharabad and Ranipur police stations of Haridwar pasted notices on the walls of Urmila’s home in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, over the past three days asking her to appear before them.

The teen receptionist, employed at the Vanantara resort near Haridwar, was killed and thrown into a canal in September 2022. Pulkit Arya — son of then BJP leader and resort owner Vinod Arya — is serving a life term for the murder along with two staff members. Vinod has been suspended from the party.

Urmila claimed in a Facebook post on Saturday that she had written to Dehradun senior superintendent of police Ajay Singh seeking security on the grounds that the police and other state agencies were trying to eliminate her.

She has said Gautam and Rathore would be responsible if she were killed. Singh has not confirmed the receipt of any such letter or message.

After Urmila’s allegations, Gautam had lodged a complaint with BJP chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s office, demanding that she be questioned and forced to hand over the evidence she claims to have.