The parents of Ankita Bhandari, who was murdered in 2022, and Congress MPs were detained by security personnel on Thursday during their sit-in protest at Delhi’s India Gate.
The protest began after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam was named as the next governor of Sikkim on Monday.
Bhandari’s family and activists have alleged that Gautam is the alleged VIP linked to the murder case. They were demanding that the BJP leader not be allowed to assume his new post until the allegations against him are investigated.
The parents were released less than two hours after they were detained, ANI reported.
They were detained hours after Opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with several Congress MPs, had joined the protest on Wednesday. The Congress leaders and party workers had remained at the site after Gandhi and Vadra left.
At 3.45 a.m. Delhi Police along with CRPF detained parents of Ankita Bhandari and Congress MPs from India Gate.#justiceforankitabhandari pic.twitter.com/KvA66WWY9S
— Jothimani (@jothims) October 14, 2026
The murder case
Bhandari worked as a receptionist at a resort in Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh that was owned by Pulkit Arya, the son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya. The 19-year-old went missing on September 18, 2022. A day later, Pulkit Arya, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and his assistant Ankit Gupta filed a missing person report.
However, they later confessed...