The Uttarakhand High Court has rejected Pulkit Arya's bail application, considering him the main suspect in the Ankit Bhandari murder case. The court labeled the incident a deliberate act and stressed that all individuals involved were unequivocally identified at the crime scene during the lower court hearings.

Justice Ravindra Maithani issued this ruling on Wednesday, citing the substantial evidence on record that strongly indicated the accused's participation in the crime.

In the bail hearing, the family members of the deceased victim argued that the accused, Arya, deliberately vandalized his own resort to eliminate evidence linked to the crime. They further claimed that the resort's CCTV footage had been intentionally deactivated and the DVR had been tampered with.

For those unfamiliar with the case, last year, 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari was purportedly murdered by Pulkit Arya, who owns a resort and is the son of a former BJP leader, along with two accomplices. The alleged motive behind the crime was Ankita's refusal and resistance to providing "extra services" to a VIP guest.

Ankita had gone missing around September 18–19, prompting a search for her. On September 23, the authorities apprehended the three accused individuals. Upon police interrogation, they purportedly confessed to the crime. Based on their information, Ankita's body was discovered in the Chilla canal in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, on September 24.

Arya, along with two other individuals implicated in the case, have been arrested and are currently incarcerated. Additionally, Pulkit Arya's father, Vinod Arya, was expelled from the BJP shortly after the details of the murder surfaced.