On the night of September 18, 2022, Ankita Bhandari , a 19-year-old from a modest family in Pauri Garhwal, was pushed into the Chilla canal near Rishikesh by the men who employed her. She had been a receptionist at the Vanantara Resort in Yamkeshwar for under a month. Four years on, her murder remains among the most emotive public questions in Uttarakhand. For a police officer, it is also an instructive case study in investigating crime in an age when evidence is weighed in court, but the verdict is delivered on social media.

As established in court, Bhandari had told a friend that the resort owner, Pulkit Arya, pressured her to provide “extra services” to guests. On September 18, she went out with Arya and two employees, Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta. After an altercation on the canal bank, the three pushed her into the water. Arya then lodged a false missing person report.

The initial handling of the case by the revenue police, which still had jurisdiction over the area, was slow.…