M A I N   N E W S

Kanda’s grilling continues; house, office searched
Co-accused Aruna Chadha to be questioned today
Ananya Panda and Sumedha Sharma/TNS

New Delhi/Gurgaon, August 19
The Delhi Police today seized computer servers from the office of former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, who is accused of abetting suicide of former flight attendant Geetika Sharma (23). A five-member police team, which started Kanda’s interrogation, took him to the MDLR Airlines office in Gurgaon, with focus on seizing computer servers and hard drives, which it feels would come in handy during his further interrogation.

Kanda reportedly cooperated with the police when he was brought to Gurgaon. He, however, remained mum on where he hid for the 10 days before his surrender.

Geetika worked with the MDLR group, but quit later to join another job. In her suicide note, she alleged that Kanda and another senior MDLR executive harassed and mentally tortured her, pestering her to join back.

Reports said the police seized some documents and files from his computers during searches conducted at his office and his Gurgaon residence today. The things seized from the residence of Kanda, now in seven-day police custody, included a computer server, some hard disks and three files, besides some other items.

The police is now focusing on retrieving electronic data from the office of the airline owned by Kanda, especially the three hard drives that had reportedly gone missing. The post-mortem examination of Geetika’s body had revealed that she had been “sexually active”. It also revealed that she died due to hanging. “Sealed samples of vaginal and anal swabs along with slides were preserved for semen and DNA profiling and handed over to the police” by a team of doctors that conducted the post-mortem examination.

The police believes that Kanda, who surrendered yesterday morning, might have destroyed some electronic data holding vital clues concerning the case. “It’s too early to divulge the nature of data we are looking at, but it’s a vital clue that will elaborate on the official relationship between Kanda and Geetika. We got a lead about it after quizzing him yesterday,” a senior official said.

Throughout the day, nothing helpful emerged from Kanda’s grilling as he stuck to his “not guilty” statement in the presence of his lawyers. His aide Aruna Chadha, currently lodged in the Tihar Jail, would be interrogated tomorrow to cross-check the facts.

“Kanda has not revealed anything, but we have been collecting evidence in connection with the case. We have recovered electronic files from his computers. We will interrogate Aruna Chadha tomorrow as she had earlier said that she acted as per the directions of Kanda,” said P Karunakaran, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-West).