People stage a protest demanding justice in the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case, in Dehradun.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Uttarakhand High Court on Tuesday (June 30, 2026) declined to grant interim relief to the convicts in the Ankita Bhandari murder case, who challenged their conviction and life sentences.
A division Bench of Justice Ravindra Maithani and Justice Siddharth Sah has scheduled the next hearing for July 20.
Seeking suspension of sentence and bail, the convicts, Pulkit Arya and Saurabh Bhaskar, argued that Ankita had died by suicide and that there were no direct eyewitnesses to the incident.
Opposing the plea, the State and the victim’s family submitted that crucial evidence was destroyed after the incident, including demolition of parts of the resort, tampering with CCTV footage and the DVR.
It was further submitted that forensic evidence and WhatsApp chats linked the convicts to the crime.
As per the case, they were convicted by the Kotdwar District Court on May 30, 2025, under various sections of the IPC for assault, murder and tampering of evidence.
Arya and Bhaskar were thus incarcerated for life after the prosecution examined 47 witnesses.
They have challenged the conviction before the High Court while seeking bail during the pendency of their appeals.
Published – July 01, 2026 08:35 am IST
