New Delhi:
A team of five officers from the Delhi Police today began questioning former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, the prime accused in the suicide of former air hostess Geetika Sharma.
A court in Delhi on Saturday had sent Mr Kanda to seven days in police custody. The former Haryana minister, who had been on the run for 11 days, was arrested by the Delhi Police in the wee hours on Saturday amidst high drama. Mr Kanda is yet to reveal to the police where he was hiding for 11 days.
Senior officers of the Delhi Police questioned Mr Kanda in the presence of his lawyers this morning. He was questioned about his whereabouts in the past 10 days. Later, he was taken to the now-defunct MDLR airline office in Gurgaon. The police are now focusing on retrieving electronic data from the office of the airline owned by Mr Kanda, especially three hard disks which are reportedly missing and could lead to vital clues in the case.
The Haryana 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.
(Timeline: Air hostess suicide - Her 6 years working for Kanda) He has been charged with abetment to suicide, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. The charge of abetting suicide under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Producing him inside a packed courtroom, the Delhi Police had argued for 14-day custody of Mr Kanda, saying that it needed him for "sustained interrogation". The prosecution contended that the cops needed to recover hard drives and email addresses of the politician that could serve as potential evidence in the investigation into the case. It also said that they needed to question Mr Kanda regarding several property documents that were recovered from his place during raids - the documents, incidentally, carried Ms Sharma's name. Mr Kanda's counsel, though, vehemently opposed the Delhi Police's plea for custody, saying that his client was not an absconder as termed by the cops and that, he himself had surrendered in a police station.
The former minister went missing on August 8, the day he was asked to join investigations in the case. Despite multiple raids in Haryana, Delhi and a few other states, the Delhi Police was unable to trace him and received a lot of flak over the sluggish pace of probe. Ms Sharma's brother, in fact, alleged that the politician, in between, had enough time to destroy evidence that could implicate him. "I hope the investigation is impartial. He had sufficient time to destroy evidence against him. His statement should be recorded on camera," Ankit Sharma, Geetika's brother, said.
(Watch)The investigation, though, is now expected to gather pace what with Mr Kanda's arrest. "Kanda hasn't revealed anything on where he was hiding...we had some material evidence...verifying them from him...most of the records, electronic evidence we will collect with his help," P Karunakaran, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-West), had said yesterday.
Mr Kanda's dramatic arrest was preceded by an equally dramatic build-up that saw a massive police and media presence as the politician's brother, Govind Kanda, announced, a little after midnight, that the former would surrender "in 10 minutes" at the Ashok Vihar police station in Delhi. Mr Kanda, though, showed up only four hours later.
(Timeline: Gopal Kanda arrested - A night of drama)Dressed casually in a striped shirt, Gopal Kanda arrived at the police station in a Maruti Eeco van, belonging to a news channel - UP News - and was immediately arrested. Before entering the police station amid much jostling by media personnel, the former minister told reporters that he was joining investigations as directed by the Delhi Police. "I am here to help policemen in investigations. I am surrendering of my own will," he said.
Sources say that Mr Kanda decided to surrender after the Delhi High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea on Friday over a technicality. His lawyers reportedly suggested that this could help him seek bail from the Supreme Court. But sources add that when Mr Kanda's legal advisors contacted the police regarding this, the cops seemed firm over arresting him. Faced with criticism from all quarters over the alleged delay in arresting the politician, the Delhi Police was determined to ward off any more flak. Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Sharma, in fact, had even tweeted on Friday night that his best officers were on the job and would arrest Mr Kanda very soon.
(Who is Gopal Goyal Kanda?)After Mr Kanda's brother announced of the former's surrender, the police immediately swung into action and barricaded all roads leading to the Ashok Vihar police station. Sources say en route the station, Mr Kanda hid in a parking lot of a banquet hall in south-west Delhi to evade arrest. His supporters then advised him to get into a media van. He reportedly then managed to dodge the cops at four check points and reached the police station at 4 am. But he was arrested soon after.
The former Haryana minister was denied anticipatory bail on Friday on the ground that the petition was not filed by the person who apprehended arrest. Justice P K Bhasin, in his order, observed that the accused "appears to be sitting comfortably somewhere without any apprehension of his arrest by the police" and that his brother Govind had filed the anticipatory bail application on his behalf without any proper authorisation.
The Delhi Police had told the High Court that Mr Kanda among with his employee Aruna Chaddha, who is a co-accused in the case, 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 has alleged. Before he went missing, Mr Kanda had emphatically denied the charges.
With Mr Kanda in their remand, the Delhi Police now seeks to extend Aruna Chaddha's custody. They hope to bring the two accused face to face. She is likely to be produced before the Rohini court on Monday. On August 13, the court had extended her custody by three days to allow police to question her.
The police have told the High Court that it has prima facie evidence against Mr Kanda and Ms Chaddha, who has also been charged with abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation of Ms Sharma. The police have also said in court that it suspects that the former Haryana minister is destroying evidence.
(With PTI inputs)