Kotdwar (Uttarakhand), Jul 17 (PTI) The hearing in the Ankita Bhandari murder case was on Monday deferred to July 27 as authorities were yet to appoint a new public prosecutor.

Acting on the demand of Virendra Bhandari, the father of the victim, the Pauri district administration had on Saturday removed Special Public Prosecutor Jitendra Rawat from the case.

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Ankita's father had submitted a memorandum to the District Magistrate of Pauri on July 6, accusing Rawat of diluting the case and demanding his removal.

Rawat, however, had said that after the allegations were levelled against him, he had expressed his desire to withdraw from the case and had written to the government in his regard.

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Statements of three witnesses- a friend of Ankita and two doctors - were to be recorded in the court of District and Sessions Judge Reena Negi in the murder case on Monday.

But due to the non-availability of the special public prosecutor, the proceedings in this regard could not take place.

The doctor did not reach to record the statement, but Ankita's friend Pushpdeep had arrived here from Jammu. The parents and relatives of the deceased also reached here for the hearing.

Ashutosh Negi, a relative of Ankita, said that following the instructions of the High Court, Jitendra Rawat had been appointed as the Special Public Prosecutor in the case but at that time the consent of the victim's relatives was not taken.

He demanded that consent should be taken from Ankita's parents before appointing the new prosecutor.

The next date of the hearing has been fixed for July 27.

Ankita, 19, who worked as a receptionist at Vanantra Resort in the Ganga-Bhogpur area in Pauri district's Yamkeshwar, was allegedly pushed to death in the Chilla canal by resort operator Pulkit Arya and two of his employees in September last year.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)