Ankita Bhandari case: Actress held in Saharanpur, hours before she was to appear in CBI court

Congress leader Kumari Selja questioned the BJP government over Sanawar's arrest ahead of her scheduled narco test in connection with the murder case

A day before she was supposed to be produced in the CBI court in connection with the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case, Uttarakhand Police arrested actress Urmila Sanawar from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur in connection with a separate FIR regarding alleged defamatory remarks made on a former BJP MLA.

Sanawar was arrested from her residence in Govindnagar in Saharanpur's Sadar Bazar area on Sunday.

According to police, a case was registered against Sanawar in Haridwar on Saturday, following a written complaint by Deepika Rathore, daughter of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore. The complaint alleged that obscene, objectionable and defamatory remarks targeting Rathore and his family had been circulated on social media with the intention of damaging their reputation.

A separate FIR was registered in Dehradun on Sunday. According to the FIR, the complainant, a person called Sagar, alleged that Sanawar had made obscene, indecent and defamatory statements against a woman outside the CBI court in Dehradun. The identity of the said woman was not immediately clear.

The complaint alleged that videos of the remarks were circulated on social media and other digital platforms, potentially damaging the woman's reputation and disturbing public order.

Congress leader Kumari Selja on Monday questioned the BJP government over Sanawar's arrest ahead of her scheduled narco test in connection with the murder case. In a post on X, Selja asked: "Why is the BJP government so restless in trying to protect someone in the Ankita Bhandari murder case? Urmila Sanawar was ready for the narco test. Yesterday was supposed to be her narco test, but right before that, the BJP government filed a new case against her and had her arrested today."

The Dehradun FIR invokes sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita concerning intentional insult intended to provoke a breach of peace, statements conducing to public mischief, defamation, and acts intended to insult a woman's modesty. It names Sanawar as an accused and lists another person as unknown.

The two FIRs concern separate complaints registered at different police stations.

Sanawar has been in the spotlight over a purported audio clip of a conversation between MLA Rathore and Sanawar in which references to an alleged "VIP" in connection with the Ankita Bhandari murder case were made.

Earlier this year, BJP leader Dushyant Gautam had filed a defamation petition against the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, actress Sanawar, and others for allegedly accusing him of being involved in the murder case.

Gautam claimed that Sanawar's social media posts falsely portrayed him as the "VIP" in the Ankita Bhandari case.

On October 21, according to the account provided by Sanawar, a CBI team visited her residence in Saharanpur and served her a notice directing her to appear on October 23 to record her consent or refusal to undergo a narco-analysis test as part of the investigation into the audio clip.

Sanawar said the team's visit followed a preliminary questioning session lasting about four hours on October 18.

The controversy surrounding the alleged involvement of a "VIP" in the murder case has intensified following the appointment of former BJP Uttarakhand in-charge Gautam as Governor of Sikkim.

Bhandari, a receptionist at a resort near Rishikesh, was murdered in September 2022. The case led to the conviction of the resort owner Pulkit Arya and two employees. The subsequent circulation of the purported audio clip has brought renewed attention to allegations surrounding the circumstances of her death.

Notably, Sanawar claims that Rathore was her husband, but he has repeatedly denied that they were ever married.