Castigating the Delhi Police for not making sincere efforts to interrogate Gopal Goyal Kanda in the Geetika Sharma suicide case, the Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed his anticipatory bail application on the technical ground of it being filed by his brother on his behalf.
Rejecting the application, Justice P. K. Bhasin said: “In my view, this anticipatory bail application is liable to be rejected, without going into the merits at all, only on the ground that the same has not been filed by the person apprehending his arrest.”
Justice Bhasin said the police file showed that while co-accused Aruna Chaddha was arrested just two days after the incident and the lodging of an FIR, the police only served a notice on Mr. Kanda under Section 160 (police officer’s power to require attendance of witnesses) of the Criminal Procedure Code to find out the “facts and circumstances of the case.”
Arguing for anticipatory bail, Mr. Kanda’s counsel said that in response to the notice he had contacted the police and sought time for the former Minister’s appearance before the investigating agency but thereafter the investigating officer never responded.
