The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday expelled party leader Vinod Arya and his son from the party a day after the leader’s other son was arrested in the murder case of a woman receptionist at a resort in Pauri.

It is alleged that Pulkit was forcing the 19-year-old girl into prostitution but she refused. She was subsequently murdered. The body was recovered in the early hours of Saturday.

Vinod Arya and his son Ankit Arya, the father and brother of main accused Pulkit Arya have been expelled from the party with immediate effect. The Uttarakhand government has also removed Ankit from the post of Deputy Chairman of the Uttarakhand Other Backward Classes Commission," the Uttarakhand unit of BJP said. The BJP government is facing widespread outrage over the murder.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami shared the termination orders on his official Twitter handle.

Vinod Arya’s son Pulkit — who owns the Vantara resort in Pauri’s Yamkeshwar block was arrested on Friday along with two employees of the resort for allegedly killing the receptionist, who had been missing for the past few days.

The party’s media in-charge Manveer Chauhan said on Saturday that action has been taken against Vinod Arya and Ankit on the orders of state BJP president Mahendra Bhatt.

Vinod Arya, a party leader from Haridwar, has formerly served as a chairman of the Uttarakhand Mati Board with a state minister’s rank. Pulkit’s brother Ankit is the vice president of the state OBC Commission.

The three murder accused — Pulkit Arya, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta — were sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court on Friday.

The government has announced the setting up of an SIT, under DIG police P Renuka Devi, to conduct a speedy probe into the killing.

Meanwhile, the angry locals set the Vanatara resort on fire on Saturday. A part of the resort was earlier demolished on the order of chief minister Dhami. The protesting locals also vandalised the car of BJP MLA Renu Bisht in Rishikesh, who was later escorted away by the police.

Image courtesy: PTI