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Kanda now moves Delhi HC for bail
Says he wasn’t to blame for Geetika’s death; she couldn’t handle life’s ups & downs
Legal Correspondent

Under lens: Kanda’s 400 SMSes to Geetika The Delhi Police is scanning 400 SMS sent to Geetika Sharma by her former employer and Haryana ex- Minister Gopal Kanda (pic).

New Delhi, August 13
Gopal Goyal Kanda, the former Haryana Minister wanted in the Geetika Sharma suicide case, today sought anticipatory bail from the Delhi High Court, contending that he could not be accused of abetting her extreme step that was the result of her “hypersensitive” nature and “inability to handle ups and downs in life”.

“The suicide notes makes it abundantly clear that the act of suicide on the part of the deceased was not the handiwork of sound mind but that of a confused and frustrated individual,” he said in the petition, challenging the August 9 order of the trial court dismissing his bail plea.

Geetika (23), who had been a Director of his now-defunct MDLR Airlines, “was a person of hypersensitive nature who was unable to strike a balance between her personal life and work,” Kanda said.

Appearing for Kanda, senior counsel KTS Tulsi pleaded with a Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Vipin Sanghi to hear his client’s bail plea today or tomorrow. There was nothing in the FIR or the suicide note to show that he “ever goaded, urged, prompted, incited or encouraged” her to commit suicide, the pleas said.

Geetika, who had joined the airline as an airhostess, was found hanging in her flat in northwest Delhi on August 5.

In her alleged suicide note, she said she was ending her life due to harassment by Kanda and MDLR official Aruna Chaddha. The Delhi Police has named Kanda as the main accused and Chaddha as co-accused in the case.

Declared as an absconder by the police, Kanda pleaded in the petition that under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code only an “active role” could be ascribed to abetting suicide. Unlike the dying declarations, suicide notes were inadmissible under Section 10 of the Indian Evidence Act, he said.

Kanda assured the High Court that he would not abscond or delay the trial as he was a respectable citizen and had properties in Gurgaon.

He said he was willing to accept any kind of condition for the grant of bail and was ready to join the investigation as and when required.