Congressmen led by Uttarakhand unit president Ganesh Godiyal observed a daylong fast in Dehradun on Tuesday against the appointment of BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam, whose name had cropped up in connection with the murder of a receptionist at a resort in Rishikesh in 2022, as the governor of Sikkim.
“The CBI has not yet started probing the murder case despite demands from the deceased’s parents. It is an alarming situation because even BJP leaders had named the ‘VIP’ behind the killing of the girl. But the BJP government has honoured the leader to show its support for him,” Godiyal said at Gandhi Park, where the Congress organised the protest.
“It has become clear now that the BJP is anti-women. They should have waited
till the CBI probe was over,” he added.
Some BJP leaders had identified Gautam as one of the “mysterious VIPs” linked to the murder of the 19-year-old receptionist of Vanantara Resort.
The resort was owned by Vinod Arya, who was chairman of the state pottery board with the status of a state minister before the BJP suspended him.
A friend of the deceased had told a court in Kotdwar that Arya’s son Pulkit and two managers of the resort had pressured the receptionist to give “sexual service” to some visiting VIPs and killed her when she refused to oblige. Pulkit and his two aides are serving life terms in Almora jail, but the Congress alleges that the Pushkar Singh Dhami-led BJP government is protecting the “VIPs”.
Urmila Sanawar, a TV actress and former BJP leader, had in December 2025 named Gautam, then BJP national general secretary and party minder for Uttarakhand, in connection with the murder.
Gautam had filed a defamation suit against Sanawar in Delhi High Court and dubbed the allegation “a case of political vendetta”.