Ganesh Godiyal, who holds the posts of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee President and Congress Working Committee member, staged a one-hour silent fast in Dehradun on Tuesday, citing his objection to the gubernatorial appointment of an individual whom Ankita Bhandari's parents had identified as the VIP figure in their daughter's murder case.
Writing on X, Godiyal argued that naming as Governor a person whom Ankita Bhandari's parents had publicly identified in connection with their daughter's murder amounted to a disregard for the feelings of Uttarakhand's residents. He added that the CBI's inquiry into the matter had yielded no tangible results, noting that no formal complaint had been registered against any of the named individuals despite the passage of time. He expressed the view that placing such an individual in the Governor's role would be inappropriate.
Godiyal announced plans to observe a one-hour silent fast at noon the following day, standing before the Gandhi statue in Dehradun's Gandhi Park as a form of symbolic protest. Separately, Dushyant Gautam — who had previously served as National General Secretary of the BJP and as head of the party's Scheduled Caste Morcha — took up the post of Sikkim's Governor on Monday.
Roles in both the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, where he held a councillor's seat, and the Rajya Sabha, where he sat as a member, have featured in his public career. Within the BJP's organisational structure, Gautam has taken on a range of internal roles and has been linked to work touching on the welfare of Scheduled Caste communities, a background that places him among the party's Dalit-identified figures.
Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old who had been employed as a receptionist at an Uttarakhand resort, was found dead after her body was recovered from a canal in September 2022, and her death is the event from which the broader dispute traces its origins. At the heart of the matter were claims that she faced pressure to perform sexual favours for guests at a resort operated by Pulkit Arya, whose father had previously held a position within the BJP.
Wider attention returned to the matter after a first information report naming an unidentified high-profile individual was lodged in January 2026, prompted by allegations alongside audio and video recordings that had circulated widely online pointing to that person's involvement. Following a recommendation from Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on 9 January 2026 that the matter be handed to federal investigators, the Special Crime Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation took up the case and formally opened an inquiry.
Investigative records tied to the matter — among them the Special Investigation Team's findings, the police FIR, and a range of supporting documents — have since passed into CBI custody. Investigators at the agency are also anticipated to take down the account of Dr Anil Prakash Joshi, the individual who lodged the original FIR.
Public demonstrations across Uttarakhand, calling for the Central Bureau of Investigation to examine a possible high-profile connection in the killing of Ankita Bhandari, preceded this latest turn of events. Three individuals — resort proprietor Pulkit Arya, manager Saurabh Bhaskar, and Ankita Gupta — have each received life imprisonment terms following conviction in the case.
