M A I N   N E W S

Kanda turns himself in, Delhi cops get 7 days to grill him
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung/TNS

New Delhi, August 18
A Delhi court today remanded former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda in seven-day police custody following his dramatic surrender at 4 am in the Geetika Sharma suicide case.

After evading arrest for several days, Kanda, who has been booked on abetment to suicide charges, reached the Ashok Vihar Police Station in a van, which had media stickers pasted on the front.

“Kanda has surrendered and we have arrested him,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-West) P Karunakaran said. “I’ve come here to help in the investigation,” Kanda told reporters before entering the police station. The Delhi High Court had yesterday turned down his anticipatory bail plea.

Hours after the HC order, Kanda’s brother, Govind, went to the police station at midnight and told the police that the accused would surrender. The police arrested Govind on the charge of harbouring Kanda, against whom a non-bailable warrant had been issued. Minutes later, Kanda’s lawyer also appeared in the police station and said his client would surrender in 10 minutes.

After quitting as Haryana’s Minister of State for Home following Geetika’s suicide, Kanda had gone into hiding even as the Delhi Police conducted as many as 60 searches in several places in Haryana, Goa and West Bengal and questioned around 30 persons.

After arresting Kanda, the police produced him before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate DK Jangala and sought 14-day custody for interrogating him and recovering vital evidence such as his laptop and desktop computer that he had removed from his Gurgaon office, MDLR Group, before going underground.

“Maximum amount of evidence is lying with the accused and for gathering it, his custodial interrogation is vital,” Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told the court. The police also wanted to get hold of all the emails that Kanda sent to Geetika, some of them allegedly threatening and blackmailing her, by questioning him and confronting him with the material already recovered, said the prosecutor.

Kanda’s counsel Ramesh Gupta opposed the plea, contending that the prosecution’s reasons were very vague.

After hearing the arguments for about an hour, the magistrate allowed the interrogation of Kanda for a week.

Geetika had committed suicide on August 5 by hanging herself in her Ashok Vihar residence. Geetika, who had joined MDLR airlines in 2006 as an airhostess, got promoted as a Director of the group’s hotel business in a very short span of time. In her suicide note, she had blamed Kanda and the group’s senior executive Aruna Chadha for harassing her and forcing her to take the extreme step. Chadha has already been arrested and remanded in 14-day judicial custody.

Dramatic arrest

• Friday, 11 pm: Speculation rife about Gopal Kanda surrendering at Delhi's Ashok Vihar police station
• Midnight: Kanda's lawyers confirm he will surrender
• 2.20 am Saturday: Kanda's brother Govind arrives at the police station, detained. Gopal's supporters protest
• 1 am: Gopal's lawyers arrive.
• 4 am: Kanda arrives in a news van at the police station, arrested