The father of the Uttarakhand receptionist whose murder has led to the arrest of a now-suspended BJP leader’s son appealed to chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday not to resist his demand for a CBI probe.

“We petitioned the Supreme Court on February 25 for a CBI inquiry,” the father of the 19-year-old woman told reporters in his village in Pauri Garhwal district.

“On March 13, the apex court gave the state’s BJP government two weeks to reply to our petition. We appeal to the chief minister to think of justice for a daughter of the state and stop protecting criminals in his party.”

The woman worked as a receptionist at a resort in Yamkeshwar, Pauri Garhwal, owned by politician Vinod Arya, who was suspended from the BJP after the murder. His son Pulkit and resort employees Saurabh Bhaskar and Ankit Gupta have been arrested over the murder.

They are accused of throwing the teenager into the Chilla Canal in Rishikesh on September 18 last year.

The woman’s family says, on the basis of a WhatsApp message she had sent a friend, that she was murdered for refusing to give a massage to a VIP who was expected at the resort the next day.

The state government is under pressure to reveal the VIP’s name but denies the involvement of any VIP.

“Many BJP leaders, including an MLA, came to the resort on September 23 (the day after the discovery of the body and the arrests) and a portion of the building was damaged and burnt to destroy evidence,” the father said.

“State agencies are incapable of probing the case. Only an expert central agency can reveal the truth and identify the VIP and other powerful people involved in whatever happened there.” Uttarakhand High Court had refused a CBI probe in December.

Dhami had said: “A special investigation team is at work. We can go for a CBI probe but it’s not a good idea at this stage to prevent an inquiry that is progressing in the right direction.”

A local court in Kotdwar city, Pauri Garhwal, on Wednesday denied bail to Saurabh. Bail pleas from the two other accused had been rejected before.

Jyoti Rautela, Uttarakhand Mahila Congress president, who met the family of the murdered woman on Thursday, said: “We want to know which VIP is so important that the government is hiding his name. We also want to know why the contents of the chargesheet filed in the case have been kept a secret.”

Several former employees of the resort have come forward to allege that it had been turned into a den of drugs and sex by its owners and that it had political patronage.

Vinods has denied all the allegations.