A Delhi court Saturday reserved, for May 10, its order on framing of charges against former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda and his employee Aruna Chaddha, accused of abetting the suicide of former flight attendant Geetika Sharma.
District Judge and Additional Sessions Judge S.K. Sarvaria reserved the order on framing of charges against Kanda and his aide Chaddha in the case.
Geetika, 23, was found hanging from the ceiling of a room at her Ashok Vihar house in north Delhi Aug 5 last year. She left behind two suicide notes blaming Kanda and his employee Aruna Chaddha, a former official in Kanda's now-defunct MDLR Airlines where Geetika had worked. Both are now in judicial custody and have denied any involvement in the suicide.
Police during the hearing said that they have various electronic data, mails, call details and other documents to prove that Kanda and Chaddha had abeted Geetika's suicide.
Both Kanda and Chaddha have been charged under section 306 (abetment of suicide), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation), 201 (destruction of evidence), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery with intention to cheat), 469 (forgery with intention to harm reputation) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of Indian Penal Code.
Police had also them booked under section 66-A of the Information and Technology Act which deals with hacking of computers.
Police had in its charge sheet said that Kanda was obsessed with Geetika and he and Chaddha had unleashed a series of wilful and malicious acts of mental torture, threat, blackmail and stress on her which led her to take the extreme step and that "pressure was created on her mind to make her submit to the illegal and lustful wishes of Kanda".
The investigating agency in its supplementary charge sheet had said that its probe showed that "Kanda tried to get back Geetika from Emirates Airlines with the ulterior motive of sexually exploiting her".
Chaddha had also taken Geetika for abortion at a private clinic in south Delhi, said the police and the doctor had also been made a prosecution witness.
During the arguments on framing of charges Saturday, public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said that suicide notes of Geetika and that of her mother who ended her life Feb 15 should be considered as concrete evidence against the accused.
Geetika Sharma's mother Anuradha committed suicide by hanging herself inside her house and also left behind two notes in which she blamed the duo for driving her daughter to commit suicide.
Geetika had also left two suicide notes naming Kanda and Chaddha for harassing her and driving her to suicide.
Kanda was arrested Aug 18, 2012 after he surrendered at north Delhi's Ashok Vihar police station while Chaddha was apprehended Aug 8, 2012. Police filed the charge sheet Oct 6, 2012.
The Delhi High Court had rejected the bail plea of Kanda on Nov 19, 2012 and Chaddha on Dec 3, 2012.
