Following massive protests over the murder of a young girl allegedly by a senior BJP leader’s son in Uttarakhand, the saffron party today expelled the father and brother of the accused.
Senior leader of BJP and RSS Vinod Arya’s son, Pulkit Arya, was arrested for the murder of the young receptionist at a resort he owns in the Pauri district near Rishikesh.
Vinod Arya served as a chairman of the Uttarakhand Mati Kala Board with a state minister’s rank. Pulkit’s brother Ankit was the Vice President of the state OBC Commission.
A day earlier, the administration bulldozed parts of the resort where Pulkit Arya murdered the 19-year-old woman who worked as a receptionist. Today, angry locals set fire to parts of the building.
The resort is about 10 km from the main town, Rishikesh.
Besides Pulkit Arya, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta have been arrested. They confessed to the crime, cops said.
Opposition Congress has said police were slow “because of his links with the RSS-BJP”.
“It’s horrific. When the girl went missing on September 18, why did the police register the FIR on September 21?” said state Congress spokesperson Garima Mehra Dasauni.
“Till when will this brazen misuse of power by BJP and RSS leaders continue?” she asked.
The father of the girl alleged that the girl was molested by the accused and the audio of the incident had been recorded. The woman’s body was recovered from a canal this morning.
WhatsApp text messages from the murdered woman to her friend seem to confirm allegations that the teenager was being forced into prostitution by the accused men, NDTV reported.
“They are trying to turn me into a prostitute,” read one of her messages to a friend.
