Delhi High Court orders Congress, AAP to remove posts linking BJP's Dushyant Gautam to Ankita Bhandari murder

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered the removal of social media posts by Indian National Congress (INC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and several other entities linking Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national General Secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam to the 2022 Ankita Bhandari case..Justice Mini Pushkarna said that the content should be taken down in 24 hours and that if the original uploaders fail to remove the posts, Google, Meta and X will take them down. Further, the Court said that Congress, AAP or other defendants will not post any other content linking Gautam to Bhandari's murder. The injunction will remain in force till the Court decides Gautam's defamation suit, the Bench said. The Court passed the order after noting that the allegations against Gautam were prima facie defamatory and that he had made a case for grant of interim injunction. Irreparable harm will be caused to him if the content is not removed, the Court added. .The case relates to the September 2022 murder of a 19-year-old resort receptionist Ankita Bhandari in Uttarakhand. Bhandari allegedly faced pressure to provide sexual favours to guests at an establishment run by Pulkit Arya, the son of a former BJP leader. Her body was recovered from a canal. A court later convicted Arya and two others and sentenced them to life imprisonment for her murder.A fresh controversy emerged recently after Urmila Sanawar, wife of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, alleged that a “VIP” who had sought sexual favours from Ankita Bhandari was a senior leader. Sanawar released an audio clip in which Rathore is purportedly heard identifying the alleged VIPs as Gautam and another senior party leader. Rathore later claimed the audio clip was AI-generated and accused Sanawar of attempting to defame the party. Gautam too refuted the allegations..In his petition, Gautam has argued that the allegedly defamatory videos and posts first began circulating on December 24, 2025 and quickly went viral.According to the plea, the content was deliberately fabricated and disseminated to create a false narrative associating him with a criminal case in which he has neither been named as an accused nor implicated by any investigating agency. The plea asserted that the campaign amounts to “fake news” intended to extract political mileage and cause irreparable damage to his public standing.As per the petition, the Uttarakhand Police have registered multiple FIRs against defendants Urmila Sanawar and Suresh Rathore for allegedly spreading misinformation in connection with the Ankita Bhandari case.According to the BJP leader, despite extensive investigation, no material or evidence has emerged linking him to the incident..Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia appeared for Gautam today and argued that the Congress party held a press conference levelling defamatory allegations against Gautam. He said that Gautam was being called a "rapist" by certain people.The allegations were then amplified through social media, garnering millions of views and thousands of shares, he said. "Every second that these posts and videos exist, it is harming my reputation without any basis or substance. If they had any material, they could have filed a complaint with the authorities," he said. Further, he added that a national political party must be careful before making allegations that damage a person's reputation. "I have given a list of all the reels and social media which have been posted by the Congress... My humble prayer would be an immediate removal of this and any other similar material on the internet through proxy handles as well," he said. .Along with Bhatia, Advocates Raghav Awasthi and Simran Brar appeared for Gautam..[Read live-coverage].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.