Kanda formally charged with abetting Geetika’s suicide

New Delhi : Former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda was Saturday formally charged with abetting Geetika Sharma’s suicide with a police chargesheet, filed in a Delhi court, also blaming him for destroying evidence and conspiracy. The victim’s family praised the investigators’ efforts.

Filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) D.K. Jangala, the chargesheet ran into over 1,000 pages. Police informed the court that a supplementary chargesheet against one of Kanda’s associate may be filed later.

Police have also booked Aruna Chaddha, former official of Kanda’s now-defunct MDLR Airlines where Geetika had worked. Both Kanda and Chaddha are in judicial custody.

ACMM Jangala took cognisance of the chargesheet and posted the matter for Oct 9 for hearing.

“I take cognisance of the chargesheet,” the judge said.

The chargesheet, brought to court in steel trunks, cites 65 witnesses, including father, mother and brother of Geetika, who committed suicide in August.

“The above facts (mentioned in chargesheet) disclose that the accused Kanda and Chaddha have committed offence under section 120-B criminal conspiracy read with 306 (abetment to suicide)/506 (punishment for criminal intimidation)/201 (destruction of evidence)/466 (forgery of record)/467 (forgery of valuable security)/468 (forgery for purpose of cheating)/469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation)/471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record)/34 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66 of Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 (hacking with computer system/sending offensive messages),” police said.

Geetika’s brother Ankit Sharma praised the investigators’ efforts. “Police have done a great job in finding out the sequence of events as they have mentioned in the chargesheet.”

“All the evidence prove Kanda and Chaddha forced my sister to commit suicide…If Kanda comes out on bail, he will try to ruin the case by using his power,” he said.

Police told the court that Geetika was undergoing a traumatic experience of an abortion for which accused Chaddha had accompanied her. She was also facing false allegations of forgery, cheating and fraud when she was forced to resign from Emirates Airlines, which she joined after leaving Kanda’s company.

The investigators said that by sending forged and false emails, Kanda had created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust around Geetika, in which she was not able to hold her head high and face her colleagues.

She resigned from the company of Kanda to save her dignity but Kanda again threatened her mother that he would create the same set of circumstances again.

“After hearing her mother that Kanda was threatening to register a false first information report (FIR) against her at Gurgoan, and was going to publicise this fact, which Geetika thought would jeopardise her future, she rightly feared that she would be viewed with suspicion and distrust by her colleagues, friends and future employers and became extremely distressed and depressed and, therefore, chose to end her life by hanging herself,” police said.

Police also told the court that investigation was on to ascertain the role of Kanda’s associate Chanshivroop Singh. If needed a supplementary chargesheet would be filed against him.

Chanshivroop Singh was the man who went to Dubai and told Emirates Airlines that Geetika had got the job by using forged document.

Police said that Chanshivroop was working as assistant manager in MDLR Group in 2010. He was appointed for this post and sent to Dubai to ensure that Geetika lost her job there.

The investigators said some witnesses were yet to be examined and documents were still to be collected. The results of tests on electronic evidence were yet to be received from the forensic lab.

Geetika, 23, a former flight attendant of MDLR Airlines, had in her suicide note accused Kanda and Chaddha of harassing and forcing her to kill herself. She died on the night of Aug 4-5 at her house in Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area. Kanda and Chaddha have denied the allegations.

A police officer said that examination of documents received from Microsoft revealed that Geetika had prepared a draft complaint against Kanda and emailed it to her own account Oct 4, 2010.

Geeetika’s complaint said that she was doing” it to create and preserve records of her unbearable agonies that she was going through because of the designs of Kanda and Chaddha, the officer said.