Uttarakhand Congress leaders staged a protest against the appointment of Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the new governor of Sikkim, arguing that his name has surfaced in the Ankita Bhandari murder case.
Party workers, led by state Congress committee president Ganesh Godiyal, observed an hour of silence in front of the Gandhi statue at Gandhi Park in Dehradun to express their dissent.
The state president accused the appointment of being a “direct attempt to save Gautam,” noting that no case can be registered against a governor. He said the decision hurt the sentiments of Uttarakhand residents and was a “dictatorial attempt” to silence the public. Congress state in‑charge Kumari Selja also questioned the move on social media, pointing out that Gautam had previously served as the BJP’s state in‑charge for Uttarakhand and that the CBI investigation should have progressed rapidly.
Bhandari was killed on 18 September 2022 at the Vanantra Resort in Rishikesh; her body was discovered four days later at the Chilla canal. Resort owner Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya, and two accomplices were later arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.
