New Delhi: The Uttarakhand Police have arrested actress Urmila Sanawar on Sunday (October 25) from her home in Govindnagar, in the Sadar Bazar area of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a day before she was to be produced in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in connection with the 2022 Ankita Bhandari murder case. The arrest was made based on a separate FIR over alleged defamatory remarks against a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA. She has been sent to 14 days of judicial custody.On Friday (October 23), Sanawar had reportedly consented to undergo narco-analysis and polygraph tests in connection with the murder case, and the court was to hear her again on Monday (October 26) on the matter.“A case was registered against Urmila Sanawar at Ranipur Police Station on October 24. The sections invoked are 308(5) and 308(7), which correspond to Section 386 of the IPC. It is a sessions-trial case, and immediate arrest was warranted. Since the incident occurred and the case was registered on October 24, Urmila Sanawar was arrested. The phone used to issue the threat was also recovered from her residence. Following this, the honourable court remanded her to 14 days of judicial custody. As far as the narco-analysis test is concerned, that relates to a separate case. There is no problem with conducting the narco-analysis test,” Haridwar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Navneet Singh Bhulla told news agency IANS on Tuesday (October 27).As per reports, the Haridwar case was registered based on a written complaint by Deepika Rathore, daughter of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore. She alleged that Sanwar was circulating obscene and defamatory material about her father and her family on social media to damage their reputation. She also accused Sanawar of demanding Rs 5 crore and the transfer of property linked to Ravidas Dham, and of threatening to kill her, according to police.Sanawar maintains that Suresh Rathore was her husband. He has denied this several times, saying they never married.“She [Sanwar] called me the day before yesterday [Saturday, October 24] and told me that there is a Ravidas Peeth, and that I should get it transferred into her name by asking my father. She also demanded that I get Rs 5 crore in cash from my father for her. She made this demand and threatened that if I did not comply, she would have me killed. I was very pleased that the Uttarakhand Police listened to my complaint promptly this time and took immediate action, because such action was necessary,” Deepika Rathore told IANS on Tuesday.“Whether it is a woman like me, another woman or a man, if anyone faces such behaviour, the person responsible should not be spared and immediate action should be taken against them. When she first met us, she had also filed cases against her own children and has filed cases against many other people. There are numerous cases against her,” she added.A second FIR was filed in Dehradun on Monday on a complaint by a man named Sagar. He alleged that Sanawar made obscene, indecent and defamatory statements about Sikkim Governor Dushyant Kumar Gautam, BJP leader B.L. Santhosh and former district panchayat member Aarti Gaur, among others.The complaint said videos containing indecent remarks about a woman had been knowingly circulated in an open forum to harm the reputations of those named. Police have booked her under BNS sections 79, 352, 353 and 356, which cover insulting the modesty of a woman, intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of peace, statements causing public mischief, and defamation.Ankita was working as a receptionist at the Vanantra Resort in Rishikesh when she was killed on September 18, 2022. Resort owner Pulkit Arya, son of former BJP leader Vinod Arya was convicted in connection with the case along with resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta.The Bhandari family’s allegations centre on a purported “VIP” guest. Several accounts claim she was killed after refusing to provide “special services” to this guest, a euphemism for sex work. The family says the VIP was Gautam, who was then the BJP’s in-charge for Uttarakhand.Sanawar came into the spotlight over an audio clip, purportedly of a conversation between her and Suresh Rathore, in which an alleged “VIP” was mentioned in connection with the murder.Also read: Dushyant Gautam Sworn in as Sikkim Governor Despite Ankita Bhandari’s Family Alleging His Role in Her MurderEarlier this year, Gautam, who was then the BJP’s in-charge for Uttarakhand, filed a defamation petition against the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, Sanawar and others. He said they had falsely accused him of involvement in Ankita’s murder case, and that Sanawar’s social media posts had wrongly shown him as the “VIP”.The controversy has grown since Gautam was appointed Sikkim governor. Notably, Article 361 shields governors from criminal proceedings while they hold office.“After our audio clips went viral in connection with the Ankita Bhandari murder case, a CBI investigation was ordered by the [Uttarakhand] chief minister [Pushkar Singh Dhami], with the probe being conducted by the CBI following the Union government’s approval. However, there was no trace of the CBI for nine months. On Sunday [October 18], the CBI questioned us at our residence for four hours, and we came under the ambit of the investigation. The only question they asked us was whether we were willing to undergo a narco test. We agreed to it. Accordingly, following the court’s directions, four CBI officers arrived at our residence in Govind Nagar at 8 pm today [October 21]. They obtained our signatures and asked us to appear in Dehradun the day after tomorrow [October 23] at 10.30 am,” Sanawar was quoted as saying by PTI on Wednesday.Meanwhile, the CBI has summoned Ashutosh Negi, a Uttarakhand-based journalist and petitioner in Ankita’s murder case, for questioning in Delhi on Tuesday, as per reports.‘Arrest raises serious questions’Former Union minister and Congress MP Kumari Selja asked why this arrest was made “just before the narco test”.“Why is the BJP government so restless in trying to protect someone in the Ankita Bhandari murder case? Urmila Sanawar was ready for the narco test. Yesterday was supposed to be her narco test, but right before that, the BJP government filed a new case against her and had her arrested today,” Selja wrote on X on Sunday.She added: “This arrest raises serious questions about the intentions of the BJP government. Why was this action taken just before the narco test? This is a straightforward attempt to prevent the truth about the VIP’s role from coming out.”Retired civil servant Ashish Joshi also questioned if the arrest was made to protect the “VIP”. “Was the arrest made to stop Urmila Sanawar from giving the Narco test to CBI and protect the VIP?” Joshi wrote on X on Monday.Police clarificationOn Tuesday evening, Haridwar SSP Navneet Singh Bhullar spoke to PTI about the narco-analysis test in particular, among other issues surrounding the arrest. He said that such a test required the consent of the accused as well as permission from a court. “The day we get the court’s orders to conduct the test, we will go ahead,” he said.“The narco-analysis test is being pursued by a different agency as part of a separate investigation, which is entirely independent of this case,” he said. “We are monitoring via our social media cell to see who has spread disinformation about the narco-analysis,” he warned.Bhullar also said that the FIR registered against Sanawar has led to an arrest and judicial custody (as opposed to previous instances when she was not taken into custody) because the charges are under different sub-sections of the anti-extortion law this time.“She is charged with extortion accompanied with [issuing] threats, which could invite a invite a penalty 7 to 10 years,” he said, implying that arrest was made as a result of the seriousness of the charges involved.