The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party to remove within 24 hours social media posts linking BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam to the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case.
Justice Mini Pushkarna, while passing an interim order in the defamation case filed by Gautam, also restrained both the political parties from posting any material depicting the BJP national secretary as an alleged “VIP” in the murder case.
The court also passed interim orders against other individuals and entities including Urmila Sanawar and Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee.
Justice Pushkarna said Gautam would suffer irreparable harm if an interim order banning the ‘defamatory’ material was not passed. The judge clarified that if the content was not removed within 24 hours, the social media platform would remove it as per the rules.
Bhandari, 19, who worked as a receptionist at Vananthara Resort in Pauri district, was murdered in 2022. The resort owner Pulkit Arya and two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, were later arrested and the sessions court sentenced them to life imprisonment for the crime.
Recently, actress Urmila Sanawar released an audio clip in which she allegedly mentioned a ‘VIP’ who is related to the case. Sanawar claims to be the wife of former MLA Suresh Rathore.
