Rishikesh: Angered by the murder of 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari, local residents last month vandalised the blue flex board directing tourists to Vanantra, the resort in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district where she worked as a receptionist.
But the now demolished Vanantra — owned by expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit, who’s also the prime accused in the murder case — isn’t the only tourist-oriented business in the district’s Ganga Bhogpur village that’s facing public fury.
Tea shops along the Chilla river that serve as pit stops for hot Maggi, bun maska and tea for young bikers are now empty. The Neeraj River Forest Resort has covered the word ‘BAR’ on its signboard despite having a valid liquor licence.
“There is a lot of public anger, and rumours have spread that bars are no longer allowed to operate here. We are just trying to be sensitive towards the local culture,” said Tanuj Gupta, front office manager at Neeraj Resort.
Mohit Sharma, owner of Rajaji Retreat, located a few metres’ from Vanantra, told ThePrint: “Overnight, all bookings in our resort were cancelled.”
The most frequent visitors now are government officials, who land at the resorts for surprise inspections and verification of no-objection certificates (NOC) related to fire safety, pollution, food, liquor and spa services issued by various government departments.
“We have been affected the most,” said Abhishek Vashishth, owner of Down Town Resort, which was sealed by authorities over failure to comply with fire safety and other norms.
Pulkit Arya was arrested on 22 September, along with aides Saurabh Bhakar and Ankit Gupta. ThePrint had reported earlier how Arya bought 0.8 acres of land here 14 years ago at prices lower than the market rate and set up a factory on it illegally around a decade ago and a resort around the year 2020.
Such was the extent of anger against Pulkit and the other two accused that a mob surrounded the police jeep transporting them to the Kotdwar magistrate court on 23 September. Inside the vehicle, the three men went into a huddle to fend off the punches and slaps, but the mob tore off their clothes and left Arya with a swollen eye even as a few policemen tried, though helplessly, to push them away.
“If given a free hand, the villagers would have beaten him [Arya] to death,” said Jagdish Ranakoti, a local farmer.
ThePrint reached Pulkit Arya’s family multiple times via calls but did not get a response at the time of publication. This report will be updated when a response is received.
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‘Guests were scared’
Mohit Sharma of Rajaji Retreat said outrage over Ankita Bhandari’s murder played spoiler just when business was picking up after a two-year Covid-induced slump, adding that he may be notching up Rs 15,000 in lost income each day. Sharma added that his safari jeeps are lying idle and he is paying his drivers and other staff out of pocket.
Anshul Rana, general manager of Neeraj Resort, where authorities have sealed two spa rooms for lack of relevant permits, told ThePrint: “Our guests were scared and they checked out. We were also puzzled about how to manage things from a security point of view. There was a lot of aggression among locals and we were being told that they would burn the properties.”
Of the nine resorts near Vanantra, Down Town was perhaps the worst affected. Authorities sealed the resort, citing failure to obtain an NOC from the fire department and hiring staff without adequate police verification.
“Our fire NOC expired in 2021 and we applied for a fresh licence, but no team has come for inspection yet. Our CCTV cameras were spoiled in the heavy rains and no mechanic could come to fix them. And our staff keeps changing, as most of them are locals, so we didn’t have their verification,” said its owner Abhishek Vashishth.
Resort owners claim that while inspections happen regularly, their frequency has increased since the Ankita Bhandari murder.
“We have given 10-15 copies of our licences to different authorities so far. Village pradhans, local intelligence unit teams, and special investigation team (SIT), even those departments which do not have the mandate to check resorts are coming because they are concerned. This crime is very unusual in a region like this,” said Rana of Neeraj Resort.
Adding that resorts are good for the development of the region, Tanuj Gupta of Neeraj Resort told ThePrint: “Locals get jobs and when tourists come, the economy of the region also grows. But when incidents like this happen, everyone around it is affected.”
‘Arya fought with guests, employees’
Pulkit Arya was like a “goon from Chambal”, said Jagdish Ranakoti, the brother of one of the previous owners of the land where Arya’s factory and the resort stand. Ranakoti claimed that two days after buying the land in 2008, Arya broke his commitment to spare a portion of paddy grown there till it could be harvested and destroyed it.
He further alleged that Arya never paid the Ranakotis a part of the money owed to them after registry of the land, adding, “Our family gave up after a point as we didn’t want to fight or get tangled in court cases with a politically connected family.”
Meanwhile, local residents recalled alleged instances of Arya arguing with villagers, and misbehaving with employees, especially migrants, adding that people of the area refused to work at Arya’s resort owing to his temperament. “We have seen young boys employed by his resort sitting on the street with no money. I paid at least two such boys money to buy tickets for the bus ride so they could return to their villages,” said Sharma of Rajaji Retreat.
When local resort owners decided to form an association sometime last year, Pulkit allegedly insisted that they elect him as its president. “No one wanted him to head the association and it was never formed because he was adamant,” Sharma claimed.
Though Pulkit employed women from nearby villages in his amla processing factory, he was accused of delaying their meagre wages of 90 paise for packaging per piece, sometimes for months. “The wage was even less than this earlier and when women would protest, Pulkit would keep assuring them that he would pay them on time and raise wages, but he never did,” Nidhi Joshi, who worked at the factory for five years, told ThePrint.
Recounting one altercation at Vanantra that escalated, autorickshaw driver Manmohan Negi alleged that Arya fought with some of his customers who complained that facilities at his resort were not as advertised on the website and refused to pay the full amount.
“I took the family to the thana (police station) in my auto where they fought with Pulkit for many hours. He accused their children of stealing fruits from his garden and demanded Rs 1.5 lakh,” said Negi, recalling another instance when Pulkit allegedly fell out with his guests.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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