Former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Suresh Rathore has been arrested in Uttarakhand for allegedly making statements linking a party leader to the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case, PTI quoted the police as saying on Monday.

Rathore was detained from his office in Buggawala in Haridwar and taken to the Dalanwala police station in Dehradun, where he was formally arrested, Superintendent of Police Pramod Kumar told the news agency.

Bhandari worked as a receptionist at a resort in 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.

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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”.

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In audio and video clips made public later, Rathore had allegedly identified BJP national general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam as the “VIP” in question, PTI reported. However, the former MLA had denied releasing any audio or video clips, or making any remarks against senior party leaders.

Four cases had been registered against Rathore in connection with the matter. However, three days ago, he held a press conference, in which he said that the Uttarakhand High Court had on June 4 quashed two of the four first information reports registered against him, according to PTI.

Rathore also said that two other cases registered at Dalanwala and Nehru Colony police stations were still under investigation and that he was cooperating with the authorities.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.