Uttarakhand Teen’s Family Questions Probe, Refuses To Perform Last Rites

1. Questioning the state government’s move to demolish the resort where the woman worked, her family has alleged that it was done to destroy evidence in the case in which a senior BJP leader’s son is the prime accused.

2. They have also demanded that the post-mortem examination be repeated. A provisional report has stated that the woman died due to drowning and that her body had signs of injury caused by blunt force. The autopsy was conducted by a team at AIIMS, Rishikesh. Officials are now trying to convince the family to perform the last rites.

3. The Opposition too has raised questions on the demolition, carried out on the orders of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. “This is a planned murder. People suspect that this demolition was carried out to destroy evidence,” senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Harish Rawat told NDTV.

4. The 19-year-old girl was allegedly murdered by the hotel’s owner, a BJP leader’s son, and two others are she allegedly resisted their attempts to push her into prostitution. The body of the woman, first reported missing, was recovered from a canal yesterday.

5. Pulkit Arya, son of now expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya, and two others have been arrested in connection with the crime, which has sparked huge protests in the state.

6. The Opposition has accused police of going slow in their investigation due to the accused’s links with the ruling party and questioned the delay in the registration of the FIR. State police chief Ashok Kumar explained that the area where the resort is located does not fall under the jurisdiction of regular police. “We have a system of land revenue officials registering FIRs,” he said, explaining the delay.

7. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has assured of “harshest action”. “This is a very heinous crime. Whoever the culprit is, will not be spared,” he has said.

8. The accused’s father Vinod Arya, former chairman of a state board with the rank of a minister, and his brother Ankit Arya, also a BJP functionary, have been expelled by the party.

9. Besides Pulkit Arya, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta have been arrested. The girl was last seen with the three men in a CCTV camera’s footage, police have said.

10. Anger has spilled on to the streets in the hill town following the horrifying crime. Local residents yesterday surrounded a police vehicle transporting the accused, smashed window panes and assaulted them. Police somehow managed to rescue them.

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