Geetika suicide case: Former Haryana Minister Gopal Kanda denied bail

A sitting MLA from Sirsa,Kanda had sought bail saying the investigation pertaining to him is complete,the police have already filed the charge sheet and he has been in custody since August 2012.

To this,the court said,”Grant of bail is not a mathematical equation oblivious to the fair criminal trial and larger public interest wherein mere submission like investigation is complete,charge sheet has been filed,there are large number of witnesses,completion of trial will take time and the accused is running in judicial custody for long,will not automatically lead to setting the accused at liberty on bail.”

The ASJ,however,noted that nothing in his order shall amount to expression of opinion on the merits of the case.

Kanda and his employee Aruna Chadha are facing charges of abetting suicide of Geetika Sharma,who was employed in Kanda’s MDLR airlines.

The duo has also been charged with forgery for cheating and harming the reputation of the victim and booked under the Information Technology Act for sending fake e-mails to her.

On October 4,Kanda had surrendered before the court after his month-long interim bail to attend Haryana Assembly session expired and the court refused to extend the same. He had then moved a plea for regular bail. Kanda had in his plea for regular bail said he has been falsely implicated by the family members of the victim,who was his former employee and the police have failed to show any conspiracy on his part to commit the offence he has been accused of.

He had also contended that the alleged suicide note elucidate that the victim took the extreme step out of her own volition and it was her independent act without there being any abetment or inducement by him,and that the suicide notes nowhere suggest that.

To this,the court said,”Nothing can be said about it and the same can be assessed and appreciated only after a comprehensive trial.”

Claiming that prosecuting agency is acting under bias and imagination,Kanda had submitted there is no chance of him fleeing justice or delaying trial as he is a well-known and respectable businessman and philanthropist and was/is running business into hotels,hospitality,airlines,real estate and charitable organisations which run schools and hospitals and his income tax return for 2011-12 was Rs 8 crore.

The prosecution had opposed his bail plea saying the trial is pending at the stage of recording of evidence,which has just begun and the court has barely examined seven prosecution witnesses.

It had also argued that public witnesses are yet to be examined and they also include some of the current and former employees of Kanda.

“The prime fact and circumstances which stare at the face of the court is the conduct of an expeditious and fair criminal trial and a fair criminal trial means which is free from halting of its progress,subversion of justice and intimidation and tampering of witnesses which the court considers balancing the various factors which cannot be imprisoned in a straightjacket of a rigid formula depending upon facts and circumstances of each particular case including the individual liberty,” the court said.

Kanda’s co-accused Chadha is out on interim bail till November 15 to attend religious and family events.

Chadha was arrested on August 8 last year while Kanda had surrendered on August 18. The trial in the case had started on May 27.

Geetika was found dead on August 5,2012,at her Ashok Vihar residence in north west Delhi.

In her suicide note,she had said she was ending her life due to “harassment” by Kanda and Chadha.

Police had in its charge sheet said Kanda was obsessed with the victim and was putting pressure on her to come back to his company.