The public prosecutor in the alleged murder of a woman receptionist in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand, in which a now-suspended BJP politician’s son is an accused, withdrew on Monday following the bereaved family’s complaints of bias against him.

Pushp Deep, a friend of the receptionist and a key prosecution witness, had arrived to depose but prosecutor Jitendra Rawat’s withdrawal prompted the trial court in Kotdwar, Pauri Garhwal, to reschedule the hearing for July 27.

“The public prosecutor used to behave as if he had been employed by the killers of my daughter,” the father of the 19-year-old receptionist told reporters in Kotdwar on Monday.

“We had submitted an application in the court saying he should be removed from the case.”

A state law department official said the case would be reassigned to another public prosecutor by the date of the next hearing.

The receptionist, who worked at a resort owned by now-suspended BJP politician Vinod Arya in Yamkeshwar, Pauri Garhwal, was allegedly murdered on September 18 last year.

Hours before her death, she had purportedly told Pushp Deep in a WhatsApp message that she would leave the job because Vinod’s son Pulkit Arya wanted to push her into prostitution and was pressuring her to please a VIP guest.

Pulkit, resort manager Saurabh Bhaskar and assistant manager Ankit Gupta were arrested on September 22.

After the receptionist’s post-mortem, the police said she had been beaten up badly before being thrown into a canal.

Police officers have confirmed that Pushp Deep showed them his WhatsApp chat with the receptionist, and that at least two more former women employees of the resort have accused Pulkit of involvement in the flesh trade.

The Pushkar Singh Dhami government refused a demand from the receptionist’s parents to hand the case over to the CBI, setting up a special investigation team, instead.