Uttarakhand resort case: RSS acolyte portrays murdered receptionist as ‘kachcha doodh’

Vipin Karnwal has been absconding since police booked him over the comments

Jeetendra Pal Pathi, a Rishikesh resident on whose complaint Karnwal was booked, told this newspaper over the phone that Karnwal still held the post of RSS Vibhag Prachar Pramukh for Haridwar: Representational image/File Photo

Piyush Srivastava   |   TT  |  Lucknow   |    30.09.22  : An RSS acolyte has portrayed as “kachcha doodh (raw milk or enticement)” the receptionist who was murdered allegedly by an Uttarakhand resort owner whose father is a now-suspended, influential BJP leader.

“Sabse bada gunehgaar toh aisi ladki ka baap hai jo kachcha doodh bhookhe billon ke samne rakh de (The biggest offender is the father of a girl who places raw milk in front of hungry cats),” said the Facebook post of Vipin Karnwal. True to tradition, the RSS sought to distance itself from Karnwal.

Sanjay, the RSS Prant Prachar Pramukh for Uttarakhand, told The Telegraph over the phone: “Karnwal had been Vibhag Prachar Pramukh for Haridwar in the past and was removed from his post three months ago. He currently doesn’t hold any post.”

Jeetendra Pal Pathi, a Rishikesh resident on whose complaint Karnwal was booked, told this newspaper over the phone that Karnwal still held the post of RSS Vibhag Prachar Pramukh for Haridwar.

Karnwal has been absconding since police booked him over the comments.

On Wednesday, Karnwal apologised before reporters for the post but added: “I don’t like the father, who had sent his daughter to work at a resort in an isolated forest area. However, I am sorry if people didn’t like it (the post). I deleted the post soon after realising that people didn’t take it in the right spirit.”

The receptionist at Vanantara Resort in Yamkeshwar was allegedly thrown off a bridge into a canal in Rishikesh on September 18 by resort owner Pulkit Arya and two aides when she resisted their efforts to push her into prostitution.

Several former employees of the resort have since said the resort had been a den of prostitution and drugs, frequented by VIPs. Pulkit is the son of Vinod Arya, who was suspended by the BJP in the face of protests.

Karnwal’s post, made on Tuesday, also said, in reaction to the state-wide protests at the receptionist’s murder and police’s initial reluctance to act: “I didn’t participate in any candlelight march or protest to shut down markets. A father and brother who survive on the earnings of a 19-year-old girl; whose daughter and sister work in a resort located in a secluded forest where there is debauchery….

“A friend of the girl comes from Jammu to open the eyes of the father after the incident. What is the point of raising one’s voice for a person who has sold his daughter’s corpse (a possible reference to the government compensation). He has (a slang used to signify disappointed) thousands of brothers and sisters. Sorry.”

On Thursday, the police registered a case against Karnwal. D.C. Dondhiyal, circle officer of Rishikesh, told reporters: “We are trying to arrest the accused, who is absconding.”