New Delhi: After spending over an year in jail, former Haryana Minister Gopal Goyal Kanda, an accused in airhostess Geetika Sharma suicide case, was on Thursday granted interim bail till October 4 by a Delhi court to allow him to attend the state Assembly session.
Additional Sessions Judge M C Gupta granted the relief to Kanda considering “special circumstances” that he has to attend the Assembly session and has to look after the development of his constituency Sirsa.
The court directed Kanda to furnish a personal bond of Rs five lakh and two sureties of the like amount. It also imposed several conditions on him including that he will not leave the country and will not flee from justice.
The court had on Wednesday reserved its order on Kanda’s plea after hearing arguments from his counsel and the prosecution.
Recently, the court had also granted interim bail till November 15 to Aruna Chadha, Kanda’s employee and co-accused in the case, for attending religious and family events.
Earlier during the arguments, Kanda’s counsel had said that he is an MLA from Haryana and he wanted to attend the Assembly session for which he was seeking interim bail.
“He is an MLA from Sirsa which is a big constituency. He has to perform many obligations and welfare activities for his people. Funds for his constituency are lying unutilized. Public is suffering, in the end,” the counsel had said.
He had said Kanda had surrendered on August 18 last year had has been in custody for over an year and as investigation is complete, there is nothing left for the police to apprehend that he might hamper the case.
Additional Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan had opposed his plea, saying, “There is reasonable apprehension of his tampering with the evidence.” “In February 2013, there was a session of Haryana Assembly. When Kanda did not feel the need to seek bail for attending it, why is he seeking interim bail for this session? There is reasonable apprehension of him tampering with evidence.”
The prosecutor had also said that eight prosecution witnesses have been examined and several other witnesses are current and former employees of Kanda.
He said Chanshivroop, one of Kanda’s employees, had desired to turn approver but absconded after he was contacted by people associated with the accused. Chadha was arrested on August 8 last year while Kanda had surrendered on August 18 last year.
The trial in the case began on May 27 when the court recorded the statements of eight witnesses, including police personnel and also the doctor who had conducted the postmortem of the victim. Chadha and Kanda are accused of abetting the suicide of 23-year-old former airhostess who was earlier employed in Kanda’s MDLR airlines.
Both the accused have also been charged with forgery for cheating and harming the reputation of the victim. The air hostess 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.
The 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. (PTI)