NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday served actress Urmila Sanawar a notice asking her to appear before a court in Dehradun on October 23 to give her consent for polygraph and narco-analysis tests in connection with the Ankita Bhandari murder case.Sanawar said a CBI team visited her residence on Wednesday, after questioning her for around four hours on October 18.“The CBI questioned me on the 18th. Today, I received a call from a CBI officer asking if I was at home. Upon arriving at my residence, they served me a notice for a narco-analysis test and asked me to appear before them the day after tomorrow at 10:30 AM,” she said.“This notice is related to the audio clip that went viral in the Ankita Bhandari murder case,” Sanawar told ANI.According to the notice, Sanawar has been directed to appear before the designated court on October 23, 2026, at 10:30am to ascertain whether she is willing to undergo the tests voluntarily.“Now, therefore, you are hereby directed to appear in person before this Court on 23/10/2026 at 10:30 AM for the purpose of ascertaining whether you are willing to undergo the proposed Polygraph Test and Narco Test (Lie detection Tests) examination voluntarily and without any coercion, undue influence, threat, inducement or pressure from any person or authority,” the notice stated.The development comes amid a controversy over the alleged involvement of a “VIP” in the September 2022 murder of Ankita Bhandari, a receptionist at a resort near Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.The row has intensified following the appointment of former BJP Uttarakhand in-charge Dushyant Gautam as the governor of Sikkim.
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Earlier this month, a four-member CBI team visited Sanawar’s residence in Saharanpur as part of the investigation.On Saturday, the agency also questioned former Uttarakhand BJP MLA Suresh Rathore at his residence.Speaking to reporters in Haridwar, Rathore said, “I cooperated with the investigation – nothing more, nothing less. I have no further comment. I have no further comment. We provided full cooperation to the CBI during their questioning…I have shared everything relevant to the investigation.”On Friday, Ankita Bhandari’s parents met senior officials at the CBI headquarters and shared information about various aspects of the case.
