The parents of a teen receptionist of a Uttarakhand resort who was murdered in 2022 began an unannounced dharna near India Gate on Wednesday evening against the elevation of Dushyant Kumar Gautam — who was the BJP’s Uttarakhand in-charge — as Sikkim governor.
Congress MPs Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi met the couple during the sit-in on Wednesday.
The father of the deceased receptionist told reporters: “Dushyant Kumar should be behind bars.... I earnestly request the honourable President not to appoint Dushyant Kumar as governor until the CBI investigation is concluded.”
The 19-year-old receptionist worked at Vanantara Resort, owned by Vinod Arya, a now-suspended BJP leader. Arya was chairman of the state pottery board with the status of a state minister. A friend of the deceased had told a trial court that Arya’s son Pulkit and two managers of the resort had murdered her and dumped her body in a canal when she refused their instructions to give “special service” to certain VIPs.
Urmila Sanawar, a TV actress and former BJP leader, last year linked Gautam to the murder. Gautam, who has not been named in the case, has dubbed Sanawar’s claims “political vendetta” and filed a defamation case against her.