By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore and his alleged second wife Urmila Sanawar on Friday will appear before a CBI court in Dehradun on Oct 26 for narco-analysis tests in connection with the investigation into claim of a VIP role in the murder of Ankita Bhandari.
The two appeared before the CBI court after receiving notices. The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for October 26.
Speaking to reporters after leaving the court, Rathore said he had consented to the narco-analysis test and had full faith in the investigating agencies and the judiciary. He assured the court that he would cooperate fully with the investigation.
Rathore, who formerly represented the Jwalapur constituency in Haridwar district, has been expelled from the BJP.
Sanawar said she lived in Mumbai, around 2,500 km from Pauri, and that the information she had about the Ankita murder case had come to her through Rathore.
She, too, agreed to undergo the test but said she had one condition: that it should be conducted in front of the media so that all the information could be made available to the public.
The CBI had questioned Rathore and Sanawar last week as part of its investigation.
Ankita, 19, worked as a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort near Rishikesh. She was murdered on September 18, 2022, by resort owner Pulkit Arya and his two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta. All three were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The case returned to the spotlight after an audio recording, purportedly of a conversation between Rathore and Sanawar, went viral on social media in December last year. The alleged conversation referred to a VIP and his possible role in the case, triggering fresh demands for an investigation into the identity of the person.
Following pressure from the Congress and various political and social organisations, as well as demands by Ankita’s parents, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami recommended a CBI probe in January this year.
The controversy intensified again after BJP leader Dushyant Gautam, a former party in-charge for Uttarakhand, was appointed Governor of Sikkim. Amid protests across the state against his appointment, Ankita’s parents staged a sit-in at India Gate in New Delhi and met senior CBI officials to seek faster progress in the investigation into the alleged VIP angle.
The investigation into the alleged role of the VIP has kept the case in the political spotlight despite the convictions of the three men in Ankita’s murder.