M A I N   N E W S

e-mails shot to Geetika land Kanda in more trouble
Police slaps charges under IT Act on him
Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Gurgaon, August 21
The Delhi Police on Tuesday slapped sections of the Information Technology Act against Gopal Kanda for allegedly sending false electronic messages leading to harassment of his former employee Geetika Sharma even as it recovered a third hard disk with vital clues during raids at his Gurgaon farmhouse.

Dharmender Kumar, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), said Section 66(A) of the IT Act — sending information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character or is false or (is meant) to deceive or to mislead — was added to the FIR against Kanda. This section is in addition to Section 306 and Section 506 mentioned in the FIR earlier.

He, however, did not share details of the fake e-mails that were purportedly sent to Geetika from Kanda’s MDLR office at Gurgaon.

Geetika (23) had allegedly committed suicide on August 5 in her Ashok Vihar residence and in her suicide note had pointed fingers at Kanda, her former employer at the now-defunct MDLR Airlines, and his key aide Aruna Chaddha. The deceased and her family alleged that Kanda was pressurising her to rejoin his firm after she left the job with MDLR Airlines.

After Geetika joined Emirates Airlines in Dubai, she had allegedly received threats through emails sent by Aruna Chadha, the Human Resource Manager in MDLR Airlines. When she refused to come back, Kanda allegedly got a false case registered against her and sent a letter mentioning about extradition proceedings initiated against her, the police had told the court last week.

The “third hard disk” seized following raids at Kanda’s Gurgaon farmhouse revealed that Aruna had indeed drafted the mail. It was sent to Emirates Airlines from a fake identity in the name of a Gurgaon SHO and claimed Geetika was involved in a loan fraud, following which Geetika lost her job at the airlines, as her brother Ankit had claimed.

The police had taken both Aruna and Kanda to MDLR‘s Gurgaon office and seized all discs and servers, but had failed to find any clue to the said email. It was only when Kanda was taken to his farmhouse that the police managed to lay hands on the disk that was used by Kanda, Geetika and Aruna.

Kumar said investigators had seized other crucial documents as well after raiding Kanda’s premises over the past two days. Ruling out the option of conducting a brain-mapping test on Kanda as of now, he said it was not needed as they had collected sufficient evidence against the ex-minister.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police suffered another setback on the Aruna Chadha front when its application seeking her custody was rejected for the second day in a row by a district court. The police had filed a fresh application seeking Chadha’s remand on the grounds that it wanted to bring her and Kanda face-to-face to resolve inconsistencies in their statements.

The Delhi Police also accused Aruna of misleading the investigation by misreporting her date of joining. Aruna said during interrogation that she joined MDLR just one month before Geetika, whereas as per the records recovered from the company, she had joined in 2004, the police told the court.

“She is a vital link in solving the Geetika-Kanda mystery as she appears to be well aware of all facts about them. She has also played a vital role in executing Kanda’s plans,” said a senior Delhi Police officer.

Geetika was harassed: NCW

The National Commission for Women (NCW) said on Tuesday that Geetika Sharma was “harassed” by her employer MDLR Airlines and disapproved “leakage” of the findings of her post-mortem report. “She (Geetika) was exploited, and I feel justice should be done and those responsible for her death should be punished,” NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma said.

COPS seize Third Hard disk

• Third hard disk seized from Kanda’s Gurgaon farmhouse; Aruna had drafted the e-mail that cost Geetika her Emirates’ job
• The police said Aruna misled the suicide probe and sought her custody, but their application was again rejected
• The Rohini court issued a notice to Delhi Police asking it why it leaked the postmortem report of Geetika to the media.