A court here on Saturday remanded the former Haryana Minister, Gopal Goyal Kanda, in Delhi Police custody for seven days in the Geetika Sharma suicide case.
Additional Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said that while Geetika’s suicide note had named Mr. Kanda, all circumstances of her death could be unearthed only after he was subjected to sustained interrogation. In this context, the prosecutor pointed out that Geetika, who joined the MDLR group as a 17-year-old in 2006, tried to end her association with Mr. Kanda during 2007-2009. She killed herself in her house here on August 5.
Mr. Mohan said the hard disks of computers from which emails were sent to Geetika were missing. Mr. Kanda used mobile phones registered in the names of his employees to call and SMS Geetika, he said.
Mr. Mohan said Mr. Kanda had to be quizzed about discrepancies in the papers of the Sundale Education Society, in which he had appointed Geetika chairman and in the MDLR group, in which she was appointed director.
Investigation revealed that papers purportedly pertaining to extradition proceedings by Dubai authorities against Geetika were forged, Mr. Mohan said. The allegation that she borrowed money from a colleague in Dubai was also found to be false.
Seeking 14 days’ custody of the accused, Mr. Mohan asked Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D.K. Jangala to take note of the conduct of the accused, who had evaded summons for the last 10 days.
Defence counsel Ramesh Gupta said the police seeking non-bailable warrants against Mr. Kanda even as his anticipatory bail plea was pending before the Delhi High Court revealed their “mala fide intention”. He pointed out that his client was not yet named a proclaimed offender by the court.
Mr. Gupta said the link between Geetika’s suicide note and Mr. Kanda was “not even remotely well-founded” and that there was nothing in the case that required the police to subject the politician to sustained interrogation.
The police might seek custody of Mr. Kanda’s alleged accomplice, Aruna Chaddha, on Monday to confront her with him.
