Court acquits former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda in Geetika suicide case

New Delhi, July 25

Almost 11 years after airhostess Geetika Sharma died by suicide at her Ashok Vihar residence here following alleged “harassment” by former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, a Delhi court on Tuesday acquitted him of the charge of abetting her suicide.

Kanda (57), an influential businessman and politician, was the Minister of State for Home in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in Haryana at the time of Geetika’s suicide. He was forced to resign following his arrest in the case. Currently, he is a Haryana Lokhit Party MLA from Sirsa. Holding that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond all reasonable doubt, Special Judge Vikas Dhull also acquitted co-accused Aruna Chadha in the case.

The accused were facing charges under various provisions of the IPC, including Section 306 (abetment of suicide), Section 506 (criminal intimidation), Section 201 (destruction of evidence), Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Section 466 (forgery of court record or public register). The trial court had also charged Kanda for rape (Section 376 IPC) and unnatural sex (Section 377 IPC), which were later quashed by the Delhi High Court.

Geetika (23), a former airhostess with Kanda’s MLDR airlines who was later made a director of one of his companies, was found dead on August 5, 2012, at her Ashok Vihar residence in northwest Delhi. In her August 4, 2012, suicide note, she alleged she was ending her life due to “harassment” by Kanda and Chadha. Six months after the death, her mother also died of suicide. Kanda, who was arrested on August 7, 2012, was granted bail after the Delhi High Court dropped the charge of sexual exploitation against him in March 2014. (With PTI inputs)