Geetika suicide case: Story of accused Chanshivroop who wanted to be approver but fled

Tribune News Service

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, July 25

Mohali’s Chanshivroop Singh Nayar, who was the third accused in the Geetika Sharma abetment to suicide case, wanted to become an approver and had even recorded a confessional statement in this regard. But he fled to the USA before his application for a pardon could be decided.

He was declared a proclaimed offender in the case on May 7, 2013, and could not be brought to face trial, rendering his confession inadmissible.

Geetika Sharma had joined MDLR Airlines, now defunct, in October 2006, and in 2010, she joined Emirates Airlines.

Chanshivroop was appointed as Assistant HR Manager at MDLR Airlines with the sole objective that Geetika remained under the control of Haryana MLA Gopal Kanda, according to the prosecution.

Delhi Police said he was sent to Dubai by Gopal Kanda and Aruna Chadha for investigating the issue of the forged NOC that Geetika had submitted to Emirates Airlines for the post of Stewardess.

Chanshivroop had allegedly handed over a false complaint, made to Police Station Civil Lines, Gurgaon, against Geetika at the HR Department of Emirates Airlines. He allegedly met Shirish Thorat, who was working at Emirates Airlines in the capacity of head of investigation and security group. The purpose was her expulsion, claimed the police. 

Geetika was made to resign from Emirates Airlines after the inquiry but she did not join MDLR on her return.

Also, Chanshivroop allegedly created a fake email ID [email protected] from Mohali and sent an email to Geetika with the threat of extradition along with a forged order from a Dubai Court to put further pressure on her.

He was released on bail on October 30, 2012, and the next day he filed an application for a grant of pardon in a Delhi court. His statement under section 164 of CrPC (statement before a magistrate) was recorded on November 7, 2012, and then again on November 27, 2012, regarding the harassment of Geetika at the behest of Kanda and Chadha.

The hearing on the application for pardon was fixed for November 30, 2011, but that day Chanshivroop did not turn up in court.

In its status report before Delhi High Court in WP (Crl) 1748/2012, Delhi Police submitted that Chanshivroop had left India on the intervening night of November 27/28, 2012, for the USA via Etihad Airlines from Delhi on a business visa.

The report added that he stayed at Hotel Aira Xing in Pahar Ganj, Delhi, along with his father, brother-in-law, and two friends, and their movement was recorded in CCTV cameras. After seeing off Chanshivroop and his friend, the others came back to the hotel and left the next day.

The Delhi Police claimed that the call details of Chanshivroop’s father Harminder Singh and other family members showed that they were in constant touch with “Vishnu Tatiya who is a relative/close aide of accused Gopal Goyal Kanda and head of the purchase/sale department of MDLR Group”.  Harminder Singh had contacted Tatiya on November 29, 2012, a day after Chanshivroop left India, added the report.

The police mentioned that it reflected “the overarching influence of the co-accused Gopal Goyal Kanda and Aruna Chadha, who using their resources and associates such as Govind Goyal and Vishnu Tatiya have ensured that Chanshivroop Singh is not available for investigation and absconded”.

Harminder Singh had got registered a case in December 2012 alleging that his son had disappeared after people, at the behest of Govind, brother of Gopal Kanda, were pressurising him to go to media and make a statement against the police. But the police filed a cancellation report in 2019.

While acquitting Kanda and Chadha, Special Judge (MPs/MLAs cases), Rouse Avenue Court Complex, Vikas Dhull, concluded that the confessional statement of absconder Chanshivroop Singh Nayar “cannot be relied upon under Section 30 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, as absconder co-accused is not facing any joint trial with present accused persons”.

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