New Delhi/Sirsa, August 16
A Delhi court on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against absconding Haryana ex-minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, accused of abetting the suicide of former air hostess Geetika Sharma, even as the Delhi Police picked up his relative from Sirsa for questioning.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate DK Jangala directed the Delhi Police to execute the arrest warrant against Kanda by August 24 and file its report. The police told the court that they had been unable to arrest Kanda despite their best efforts. The order on Kanda’s anticipatory bail plea has been reserved by the Delhi High Court.

Amid reports that the absconding Sirsa MLA may have slipped into Nepal to evade arrest, a 25-member Delhi Police team swooped down on the house of Bunty Bansal, son-in-law of Kanda's brother-in-law. Bansal had made a 40-minute call to someone in Nepal yesterday. He was taken into custody after brief questioning, as he could not satisfactorily answer the police queries.

The Delhi Police first raided the house of one of Bansal's associate in whose name the SIM card used to call up the Nepal number was registered. The associate told the police that though the SIM was in his name, it had always been in Bansal's possession. The team then raided Bansal's house.

A striking feature of last night’s raids was that while in all previous actions the Delhi Police had taken the local police along, this time they went ahead by themselves, giving credence to speculations of lack of faith in the Haryana Police.