India, Oct. 15 -- The parents of Ankita Bhandari, the 19-year-old receptionist who was murdered in Uttarakhand in September 2022, staged a protest at India Gate in New Delhi against the appointment of Dushyant Gautam as Sikkim governor, bringing the case back into focus.

On Wednesday evening, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi met Ankita Bhandari's parents near India Gate and joined their sit-in protest. The parents were detained at 4am on Thursday and released later.

The murder remains a major political issue in Uttarakhand, which is scheduled to go to polls early next year.

Ankita, a resident of Uttarakhand's Pauri Garhwal district, worked as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort in Yamkesh...