U’khand: SIT submits charge sheet in receptionist murder case

The special investigation team of Uttarakhand police probing the receptionist murder case on Monday submitted the charge sheet against expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit Arya and two others in connection with the case, police officials privy to the matter said.

A 19-year-old woman, who was working as a receptionist at the Vanantara Resort in Rishikesh was allegedly murdered by three people, including Pulkit Arya and his two staff members, for refusing to provide “extra services” to a VIP guest, the police said. Along with Arya, who owned the resort, two others – manager Saurabh Bhaskar, and assistant manager Ankit Gupta – were arrested for the murder, police said.

“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 Monday,” said additional director general of police (law and order) V Murugesan.

The charge sheet was sent to the prosecuting officer on Saturday for analysis who subsequently filed it in the court on Monday, he said.

A senior police official privy to the investigation, who requested not to be named said: “We have submitted the charge sheet in the investigation which includes forensic reports, post-mortem report, electronic evidence like data from three mobile phones belonging to the accused, and WhatsApp chats”.

“It also includes statements from 100 witnesses, including that of former employees who worked at the resort. The charge sheet has sufficient evidence or ‘reasonable ground’ to justify the crime committed by the accused,” said the official further.

The charge sheet also mentions that “the victim was being pressurised to provide special services to a VIP guest”.

The three accused have been 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, according to the police.

“A supplementary charge sheet will also be submitted after further investigation under Section 173(8) (power of the police to conduct further investigation, after laying final report) of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” Murugesan said.

“We have been trying to get the approval for the narco and polygraph tests of the accused,” he added further.

Meanwhile, a Pauri Garhwal court will be hearing the police application for the narco test on December 22. On December 12, during the first hearing, accused Gupta had sought 10 days to give consent to the narco test. Police had moved the application in court on December 9.

Since the key accused in the case is the son of a former leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the opposition Congress has questioned the “fairness in the investigation”, asking “why police were not revealing the name of the VIP for whom the victim was being pressurised for sexual favours”.

Earlier, a WhatsApp conversation between the victim and her close friend, which was shared on social media, hinted at the accused “forcing to provide sexual favours to the VIP guest expected to visit the resort on September 19”.

The receptionist’s body was found on September 24, six days after she went missing from her home. The girl was murdered on September 18 by the three arrested men after she refused their demands, police said. All three accused are in jail.

Facing public outrage, Uttarakhand police had formed an SIT under deputy inspector general P Renuka Devi to investigate the matter. On November 11, police had said that their forensic team didn’t recover any forensic evidence from the resort.

Uttarakhand police on several occasions have said they had collected the necessary evidence from the resort before a bulldozer destroyed portions of it, including the room that was allotted to the receptionist while she was working there. The bulldozer action had triggered a controversy, with the family of the victim, some locals and opposition parties alleging it was done deliberately to destroy evidence to save Pulkit Arya.

A Pauri Garhwal resident, Ashutosh Negi, had also moved the Uttarakhand high court in October seeking CBI investigation into the matter.In his plea, it has been claimed that “the BJP MLA Renu Bisht ordered the demolition of the resort as to ensure the destruction of evidence” in the case. Meanwhile, police have failed to find the woman’s mobile phone. “We have received results of the electronic evidence — mobile phones of the accused — and other evidence collected from the crime scene from FSL (forensic science laboratory) Chandigarh,” Murugesan said. “However, our team couldn’t find the woman mobile phone.”

Key accused Arya has a criminal past, police said. The first case against him was registered in 2009 for criminal trespassing, and the second in 2016 for fraud. His father Vinod Arya was recently booked by Haridwar police for allegedly attempting to sodomize his driver, and later trying to kill him. In October, Pauri Garhwal police had invoked the Gangster Act against all three accused in the case.