Delhi Police suspect there was more than one motive behind the unabated harassment of Geetika Sharma, the 23-year-old former flight attendant who hanged herself earlier this month, allegedly at the hands of her employer Gopal Goyal Kanda. The former Haryana Minister, who surrendered amid high drama in the early hours of Saturday, is presently in police custody.
According to a police source, investigations so far have thrown up concrete evidence indicating that Mr. Kanda and his close associates were pressurising Geetika mentally in various ways.
“There were several motives about which we cannot comment at this stage, as the accused might take advantage in building his defence during trial,” said the source, adding the police were confident of connecting Mr. Kanda to the case of abetment to suicide.
The police have come across e-mail exchanges revealing that pressure was being brought upon Geetika to re-join MDLR after she quit the company to pursue higher education. The police will interrogate Mr. Kanda to ascertain why she was being forced to join the company against her wishes. Investigations are also underway to find if the letter accusing Geetika of not having cleared a debt — that was sent to a Dubai-based airline company which she had joined after quitting MDLR the first time — was forged at the instance of the former Minister.
On Sunday, the police took Mr. Kanda to the MDLR office in Sector 15 and his residence in the Civil Lines area of Gurgaon. Searches were carried out at both the locations, during which computer hard-discs and several documents relevant to the case were seized.
Days after he was first asked to join investigations, Mr. Kanda surrendered at the Ashok Vihar police station in the early hours of Saturday.
Justifying the delay in joining the probe, Mr. Kanda’s lawyers said he was waiting to exhaust all his legal options before giving himself up to the police that had declared him an absconder. While a city court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him, Mr. Kanda also did not get any relief from the Delhi High Court, following which he offered to surrender.
The police are now trying to ascertain whether Mr. Kanda tried to destroy evidence related to the case during the period he was evading arrest. They will also try to identify those who sheltered him and may initiate legal proceedings against them.
Armed with Geetika’s post-mortem report and the e-mail exchanges between her and both the accused, the police will also confront Mr. Kanda with their findings.
