Ankita Bhandari case: Sanawar arrest sparks fresh storm in Uttarakhand

• Police remand Urmila Sanawar to 14 days' judicial custody following an extortion complaint.

• Sanawar's allegations against BJP leaders resurface amid continuing questions over the Ankita Bhandari case.

• Congress demands action against all those accused and questions the government's handling of the case.

The mystery surrounding the arrest of outspoken Urmila Sanawar by Haridwar police on Sunday, 25 October, has deepened. Deepika Rathore, daughter of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, had levelled a series of allegations against Sanawar in January, prompting police to register an FIR against her. However, no action was taken against Sanawar at the time.

This time, Deepika Rathore has accused Sanawar of attempting to extort Rs 5 crore from her father and issuing death threats against the family. Sanawar has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.

With her characteristic devil-may-care attitude, Sanawar had gone public on 23 October, claiming that she was willing to undergo narco-analysis and a polygraph test before the special CBI court in connection with the Ankita Bhandari murder case.

In her forthright — some might call it brash — style, she broke the silence surrounding the alleged VIPs at whose behest Ankita Bhandari had reportedly been approached to provide sexual favours.

"If my narco test is conducted on camera, all the secrets behind the Pauri Garhwal murder and other crimes buried inside me will be exposed," she told reporters.

The name she had revealed in an audio clip released in December 2025 was 'Gattu', allegedly referring to Dushyant Gautam, who was then a BJP national general-secretary and had headed the party's Uttarakhand unit. Gautam was recently appointed governor of Sikkim, a development that has prompted questions in the wake of the allegations against him.

More serious were Sanawar's allegations, made in social media videos, that Gautam used to procure women for BJP national general-secretary B.L. Santosh. These claims have not been established in court.

The revelations have triggered a fresh round of allegations against the BJP at both the national and state levels. Social activist Brigadier Sarvesh Dangwal (retd) of the Garhwal Rifles said in a recent video discussion that chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami should also be treated as an accused in connection with the allegations surrounding the case.

Dhami had publicly announced that the state government was taking strict action in the case, following which Ankita Bhandari's room was demolished in a late-night bulldozer operation at the resort where she worked. Dhami was the first to tweet that "we have broken down a part of Vanantara".

The demolition triggered a severe backlash from the public, the Opposition and Ankita's family, who accused the government of deliberately attempting to destroy crucial forensic evidence.

Suresh Rathore had also reportedly consented to undergo polygraph and narco-analysis tests that were scheduled to take place on Monday. However, no narco-analysis test was conducted on him on 25 October.

Rathore had also denied that Sanawar was his second wife. In response, Sanawar reportedly told local media that she was willing to beat him with slippers in a court of law if he stood by that statement.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Congress vice-president Sujata Paul addressed a press conference in Dehradun on Monday, demanding the arrest of everyone accused in the case. "It is shocking that Urmila Sanawar has been arrested on charges of demanding Rs 5 crore. But why has the state government failed to arrest (women and child welfare minister) Rekha Arya, whose own husband has accused her of corruption involving Rs 210 crore? We demand an explanation from the government on these double standards," Paul said.

Based on Deepika Rathore's complaint, Haridwar police registered a case against Sanawar under sections 308(5), 308(7), 79, 356(3) and 356(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with sections 4 and 10 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

The charges include allegations relating to extortion, threats, insulting the modesty of a woman and defamation, as well as provisions under the law prohibiting indecent representation of women.