Delhi HC orders Congress, AAP to remove posts linking BJP leader to Ankita Bhandari murder case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, actress Urmila Sanawar and others to take down allegedly defamatory social media posts linking Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dushyant Gautam to the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case, Live Law reported.

Justice Mini Pushkarna issued the interim order on a defamation petition filed by Gautam, the national general secretary of the Hindutva party. The judge also restrained the defendants from posting any content referring to him as the alleged “VIP” in the murder case.

“…a prima facie case is made out by the plaintiff,” Live Law quoted Pushkarna as saying. “Balance of convenience is in his favour and irreparable injury would be caused to plaintiff if defendants 1-9 are not restrained from posting the defamatory content.”

She added that if the content were not taken down within 24 hours, the social media platforms would have to remove it as per the Information Technology rules, PTI reported. She also asked the platforms to take down any “identical” content once it was flagged by the BJP leader.

In December, Sanawar had uploaded videos and an audio recording of her alleged phone conversation with her supposed former husband, expelled BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, in which Gautam was allegedly mentioned.

Following the social media posts, the Congress and other Opposition parties had alleged that Gautam was also involved in the case and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe in the matter.

Bhandari worked as a receptionist at a resort in Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh that was owned by Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya. She went missing on September 18, 2022. A day later, Pulkit Arya, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta filed a missing person report.

However, they later confessed to killing Bhandari by pushing her into a canal following an altercation. Bhandari’s body was recovered from the Chilla Canal in Rishikesh six days after she had gone missing.

The BJP expelled Vinod Arya and his other son Ankit Arya after the matter came to light.

Evidence recovered later, such as WhatsApp messages from Bhandari to a friend, seemed to show that the men were allegedly trying to force Bhandari into prostitution. It was claimed that she was killed for refusing to provide “special services” to a “VIP”.

In May, Pulkit Arya, Bhaskar and Gupta were sentenced to life imprisonment.

In his defamation suit, Gautam alleged that the online posts by Sanawar falsely linked him to Bhandari’s murder and caused him severe reputational harm.

Gautam accused Uttarakhand Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal, the AAP, Sanawar, Rathore and several users of the social media platform X of defamation. Social media platforms Meta, Google and X have also been accused of defamation by him.

“Serious allegations have been levelled against me, suggesting I was the ‘VIP’ connected to the Ankita Bhandari case, all without any judicial conclusion,” his petition said.

The petition said that despite clarifications and the registration of first information reports, the content continued to be shared without correction or apology, causing ongoing harm to his reputation.

He had sought damages of about Rs 2 crore and injunctions to restrain further circulation of the material.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the counsel for Gautam argued that his “impeccable reputation” of five decades was being tarnished by the Congress, the AAP and others by linking him to a murder case in which the conviction had already taken place after a trial, PTI reported.

Describing it “outright defamation”, the counsel said that the BJP leader’s name had never come up in the investigation and added that the defendants’ social media posts were damaging his reputation “without an iota of evidence”.

Sanawar was a “habitual offender” who had many criminal cases against her, the counsel alleged, adding that the Congress and AAP further propagated her false narrative.

The matter will be heard next on May 4.

Gautam has also filed a police complaint against Rathore, Sanawar, the Congress and the AAP, citing provisions of the Information Technology Act and defamation under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

In the complaint, he alleged that the audio and video clips had been deliberately circulated to defame him, damage the image of the BJP, provoke the public and disturb public order.

The Uttarakhand Police said a case had been registered based on Gautam’s complaint and that the evidence provided would be examined.