Geetika suicide case: Look-out notice for Gopal Kanda

Most wanted in the Geetika Sharma suicide case, former Haryana minister Gopal Kanda now has a look-out notice issued against him. Six police teams are on the lookout for him. Trouble didn't end there as his anticipatory bail plea, too, was rejected.

Kanda, who is accused of abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation, has refused to appear for questioning before the Delhi Police which carried out searches at his residence and office in Sirsa in Haryana besides his recently launched MDK International School, a day after they raided his farmhouse and hotel.

Kanda's bail plea was rejected shortly after another court allowed for two days custodial interrogation by the Deli Police of his female employee Aruna Chaddha, who has also been accused of abetting the suicide of Geetika.

The Delhi Police is also facing criticism and allegations of going slow in acting against the powerful Gopal Kanda.

Geetika (23), a former air hostess with Kanda's now defunct MDLR airline, was found hanging in her flat in north west Delhi on Sunday.

In a suicide note found at her residence, Geetika said she was ending her life due to harassment by Kanda and MDLR official Aruna. Both Kanda and Aruna have denied the allegations.

Kanda, an Independent MLA who held Home, Urban Bodies and Industry and Commerce portfolios, resigned the following day.

Appearing for Kanda, his counsel, KTS Tulsi said Geetika was a "hypersensitive girl" with "mixed emotions of love and hatred towards him" and that she might have felt "jilted".

"Nowhere has Geetika said in her note that Kanda instigated her to commit suicide" he argued before the court.

Tulsi referred to Geetika's August 4 suicide note, in which she had said she is "shattered from inside" as her trust is broken and that Kanda is a "fraud" and had purportedly held him and Aruna responsible for her death.

The suicide note shows she had a disturbed state of mind, he said.

_PAGEBREAK_

Tulsi told the court that the last phone call that Kanda had made was to Geetika's mother informing her that some papers related to Geetika's resignation have to be signed.

"Here is a case of a hypersensitive girl as merely asking for signing some papers can't be even remotely taken as intentionally abetting suicide," Tulsi added.

Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Rajiv Mohan said Kanda and Aruna had been pressurising Geetika to come back to MDLR even when she went to join Emirates and then had lured her back by sponsoring her MBA course.

He also said Geetika was accorded out-of-turn promotions and appreciations for no good reasons.

The APP said when Geetika left MDLR in 2010 and joined Emirates, MDLR gave her a no-objection-certificate but later the company sent a letter to Emirates saying she be expelled as she had got her first job on basis of forged documents.

All this, he said, were ways to force her to join back MDLR.

Mohan also referred to an e-mail recovered from Geetika's laptop with letters from Consulate General of India and authorities in Dubai, referring to some extradition proceedings initiated against her there on account of non-payment of money taken from a person in Dubai.

"We are examining the authenticity of these letters and mail," police said, adding it goes to show that "there is a lot behind the veil."

He said Aruna has been arrested in the case and Kanda's custodial interrogation was also a must.

Geetika's brother, Ankit Sharma accompanied by their mother, said, "we want Kanda's immediate arrest. He is just playing with evidences and trying to delay the whole process."

(With additional information from PTI)