New Delhi/Gurgaon:
With former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda finally in police custody, the real task for the Delhi Police has just begun. They now have to gather enough evidence to prove that Mr Kanda instigated his former employee Geetika Sharma to commit suicide.
After spending his first night in lockup on Saturday, the former Minister of State of Home in the Haryana government was questioned from 10 am onwards on Sunday by a team of five officers from the Delhi Police. The interrogation was conducted in the presence of his lawyers. Sources said Mr Kanda, who resigned after he was booked in the case, did not provide details about where he was hiding for 11 days, ignoring summons by police in connection with the suicide of the 23-year-old air hostess.
Sources in the police have told NDTV that Mr Kanda was asked three main questions.
He was asked about the three hard drives which were cleared off the MDLR office computers - one from his computer; another from his employee Aruna Chaddha's, who is a co-accused in the case; and the last from one of the associates of the company. The police had said in court that it suspects that the former Haryana minister is destroying evidence.
Mr Kanda was also asked if he wrote the letter to Emirates Dubai, stating Ms Sharma's dubious background, which had led to her termination. The police had told the Delhi High Court that Mr Kanda along with Ms Chaddha had been pressuring Ms Sharma for a number of years to ensure that she continued to work with his MDLR group of companies; they even visited Dubai when Ms Sharma was working with an airline there, to coerce her to return, the police had said.
The politician was also asked about the details of the educational society in Ms Sharma's name. The cops asked him if he was trying to pressurise the family to sign papers. The police had recovered several property documents from Mr Kanda's place during raids - the documents, incidentally, carried Ms Sharma's name.
Mr Kanda was then taken to the MDLR's office in Gurgaon. The police, in a raid there, which lasted for over two hours, confiscated documents, servers and a computer. Mr Kanda was subsequently taken to his Gurgaon residence. The cops were hoping to retrieve crucial electronic evidence and property papers from there.
The politician was named in the suicide note left behind by Ms Sharma, who hanged herself in her home in Delhi on August 5. Her family alleges that Mr Kanda was harassing the 23-year-old former air hostess, who had worked in several of the former's companies. He has been charged with abetment to suicide, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.
After two days in custody, police says so far Mr Kanda has been a tough nut to crack and is speaking on the advice of his lawyers. The police is now banking on confronting Ms Chaddha and Mr Kanda on the same table, hoping to piece together the exact chain of events that led to Ms Sharma's suicide.
(
With PTI inputs)