DEHRADUN: In a striking twist in the Rishikesh resort murder case, it was the position of the moon that helped police expose a critical lie told by the main convict, Pulkit Arya. On Friday, Arya—owner of the Vanantra Resort and son of expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya—was convicted alongside two associates for the 2022 murder of a 19-year-old receptionist.
- Renuka Devi, who led the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that cracked the case, revealed to TOI that Arya’s version of events was disproved with the help of data from a meteorological observatory in Kolkata.
“Arya claimed the girl accidentally fell into the barrage around 9pm and that he and his associates saw her fall and tried to save her,” Devi said. “To verify his statement, we contacted the meteorological observatory, which confirmed that moonrise in the area occurred only around 11pm that night.”
This revelation undermined Arya’s claim, as visibility at 9pm in the forested area near the Chilla Barrage would have been almost zero without artificial light. “It was pitch dark. The only way to see anything would have been with a mobile phone torch. His account simply didn’t add up,” she added.
CCTV footage from near the barrage further corroborated the investigation’s timeline and disproved Arya’s narrative.
In another first, doctors from AIIMS Rishikesh who conducted the victim’s autopsy also visited the crime scene. Their findings—particularly the height from which the victim was believed to have fallen and the pattern of injuries—were crucial in building a solid forensic case.
The SIT was formed on September 24, 2022, after the young woman went missing on September 18. Her body was recovered days later from the Chilla Barrage near Rishikesh.
Soon after, Arya and his two associates, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, were arrested and remanded to custody. On Friday, a court in Kotdwar found all three guilty of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
Arya was convicted under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), and 354A (sexual harassment), while Bhaskar and Gupta were charged under Sections 302 and 201.
