The parents of the 19-year-old resort receptionist who was murdered in Uttarakhand in September have alleged that investigative agencies had destroyed evidence and government officials were threatening the family.

A now-suspended BJP leader’s son, the owner of Vanantara Resort at Yamkeshwar in Pauri Garhwal district, is accused of throwing the receptionist off a bridge and into a canal when she refused to “give massage to a VIP guest”.

Owner Pulkit Arya, son of Vinod Arya who was suspended by the BJP in the face of statewide protests, has been accused of turning the facility into a den of prostitution and drugs.

“The special investigation team (of the state police) has told Uttarakhand High Court that it had recovered a bag and a locket belonging to my daughter from her room at the Vanantara Resort. The SIT has also said that they have no evidence other than some video recordings of the resort and its rooms. The fact is that my daughter’s room was demolished the day her body was fished out of Chilla Canal in Rishikesh on September 23,” the father of the victim told reporters in Pauri Garhwal on Tuesday.

“Some people have started a crowd-funding initiative to fight the case to ensure justice for my daughter. But some government employees had come to us and asked us to withdraw the case or they would trap me in a false case of forgery related to the Rs 50,000 raised through crowd-funding,” said the father, who along with his wife had attended the high court proceedings in Nainital on November 11 and requested the judge to hand the case over to the CBI.

Ashutosh Negi, a relative of the girl, had moved the court demanding a CBI probe.

“The BJP has suspended Vinod Arya but he is still very powerful. The SIT has not seized Pulkit’s phone although he is the main accused. We are sure that the SIT is suppressing important evidence,” Negi said.