Ankita Bhandari Murder Case: Uttarakhand High Court Rejects Bail Pleas of All Three Convicts
By Sunil Negi
NAINITAL | 18 August 2026
The Uttarakhand High Court on Monday rejected the bail applications of all three convicts in the high-profile Ankita Bhandari murder case. A division bench of the High Court, after a prolonged hearing, did not accept the arguments presented by the defense counsel.
Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta were earlier sentenced to life imprisonment by a lower court in the case that shook the entire state. All three had approached the Uttarakhand High Court seeking bail, but their plea was dismissed.
Senior advocate Navneet Negi, appearing for the aggrieved parents of Ankita Bhandari, strongly contested the bail applications. He told the court that the three accused had brutally murdered Ankita and presented detailed evidence to establish the sequence of events. According to Negi, on 18 September Ankita was extremely threatened and in a state of panic. She had sent several telephonic messages to a friend and to resort staff requesting that she be taken away from the Vanantara resort immediately along with her luggage, fearing serious consequences if she stayed back.
However, the three accused did not allow her to leave the resort. The court was told that they later killed her brutally, threw her body into the Chila canal, and returned to the resort without Ankita Bhandari.
After examining the arguments and evidence, the High Court bench rejected the bail pleas and upheld the gravity of the crime. With this order, Pulkit Arya, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta will continue to remain in jail to serve their life sentences.
