BJP hails Delhi HC order asking Cong, AAP to remove posts linking Dushyant Gautam to Ankita Bhandari case

New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) The BJP on Wednesday called "victory of truth" the Delhi High Court's order directing the Congress and AAP to remove within 24 hours social media posts linking BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam to the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case.

"We welcome the court’s order. This is a befitting reply to the dirty politics that the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party indulge in," BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia told reporters after the court's order.

"It's victory of truth," he added.

In 2022, 19-year-old Bhandari, a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Pauri district of Uttarakhand, was murdered. The resort owner, Pulkit Arya, and two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta, were subsequently arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court for the crime.

The high court on Wednesday directed the Congress and AAP to remove within 24 hours social media posts linking Gautam, BJP national general secretary, to the murder case.

The court also asked the social media platforms to take down any "identical" content once it was flagged by the BJP leader.

In an interim order passed on a defamation lawsuit by Gautam, Justice Mini Pushkarna restrained the Congress and AAP from posting any content targeting Gautam as the alleged "VIP" in the murder case.

The judge said if the content was not taken down within 24 hours, the social media platforms would remove the same as per the rules.

The court also passed the directions against other persons and entities, including actor Urmila Sanawar and Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee.

An audio clip recently released by Sanawar, who claims to be the wife of former MLA Suresh Rathore, allegedly mentioned a 'VIP' linked to the case. PTI PK PK KVK KVK KVK