NEW DELHI, Oct 6:
Former Haryana Minister Gopal Goyal Kanda and his aide Aruna Chaddah unleashed “a series of wilful and malicious Acts of mental torture, threat, blackmail and stress” on former air hostess Geetika Sharma which led to her suicide, Delhi Police today said in its charge sheet filed in a court here.
The police accused the duo of “harassing, conspiring, intimidating and creating an atmosphere of terror and continuous pursuit” in the mind of 23-year-old Geetika that “she found no option but to end her life”.
23-year-old Geetika was found dead on August 5 at her Ashok Vihar residence in North West Delhi. In her August 4 suicide note, Geetika said she was ending her life due to “harassment” by Kanda and Chaddah, a charge denied by them.
Investigators said Kanda had evil designs on the victim from the first day she joined his company MDLR where he gave her undue favours with the intention of “entrapping” her.
They also referred to a draft e-mail prepared by Geetika in 2010 suggesting that pressure was created on her mind to make her submit to the “illegal and lustful wishes of Kanda”.
“Investigation disclosed that Geetika committed suicide as a result of a series of wilful and malicious Acts of mental torture, threat, blackmail and stress by accused persons which created a situation that instigated her to commit suicide. These acts of both the accused persons tantamount to provocation and instigation of Geetika to end her life,” the charge sheet said.
The charge sheet filed in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D K Jangala, runs into 1020 pages and cites 65 prosecution witnesses including the gynecologist who had aborted Geetika’s pregnancy in March 2012.
Kanda and Chaddah have been charge sheeted 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.
They have also been booked under Section 66-A of the Information and Technology Act, which deals with hacking of computers.
The police said following scrutiny of documents received from Microsoft it was found that Geetika had drafted a complaint against Kanda and mailed it back to herself on October 4, 2010, alleging foul play was being attempted against her and expressed her apprehension that she was being harassed with the soul purpose of compelling her to join MDLR.
“She also suspected that the soul aim and motive of this campaign were to compel her to bow down before the illegal and lustful wishes of Kanda, who was the mastermind behind the concocted incidents.”
“This draft complaint indicates that she had pointed a finger at Kanda and said that he was the person behind all these mysterious acts, which were creating immensely unbearable problems and acute mental pressure on her,” the police said in the charge sheet.
Listing the acts of accused which instigated Geetika to take the extreme step, the police said on August 3, a day before she committed suicide, Kanda’s advocate Ankit Ahluwalia talked with her over phone and conveyed the politician’s message that she must sign on a petition filed in Goa to quash the FIR lodged against another MDLR employee Ankita Singh with whom Kanda had illicit relations and a biological daughter as alleged in the suicide note.
The police have made Ahluwalia a prosecution witness while mentioning that Ankita has not joined investigation and is hiding somewhere in Singapore.
On August 3, Chaddah phoned Geetika’s mother and levelled allegations about victim’s character and asked “to either sign or resign from the Sundale education society and return the admission fee of IILM immediately.”
Chaddah further levelled these allegations on behalf of Kanda with full knowledge that these would be communicated to Geetika by her mother, it said.
The police said after her conversation with Chaddah, Geetika’s mother talked to Kanda who used foul language and not only confirmed the allegations but himself made more such allegations.”
“By sending forged and false e-mails and by making Geetika use forged NOC when she left MDLR (which she had no reason to suspect to be forged) and joined Emirates Airlines, Gopal Kanda created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust around Geetika in which she was not able to hold her head high and face her colleagues and friends.”
“In such circumstances, she was naturally depressed as she had to resign from her job to save her dignity and further embarrassment in the eyes of her colleagues and friends,” the charge sheet said.
After hearing from her mother that Kanda was threatening to register a false FIR against her at Gurgaon and was also going to publicize this fact which Geetika thought would jeopardise her future, she rightly feared that she would be viewed with suspicion and distrust by her colleagues, friends and future employers and became extremely depressed and therefore, chose to end her life by hanging herself,” it said.
The charge sheet also narrates that even though Geetika had studied only up to 12th standard and had no experience of hotel business or managing company affairs, “her recruitment as a trainee when she was underage and her rapid promotions without any qualifications with the usual direction to report everyday to Gopal Kanda clearly shows he (Kanda) had evil designs on Geetika from the first day and was giving her undue favours with the intention of entrapping her.”
The police have also said that Kanda had in September 2009 sent Geetika to Goa to look after his casino ‘Mint’ so that she can remain his employee. The casino, at that time, was already being looked after by Ankita Singh and Nupur Mehta and it is there that Geetika developed differences with them and got an FIR registered against them.
Geetika came back to Delhi and stopped going to MDLR and pursued graduation through correspondence but was followed by Kanda, which shows his extent of obsession as even when the victim went to Dubai in June 2010, he tracked her movements.
“It is amply clear that Kanda successfully hatched and executed his plan and created circumstances that forced Geetika to quit her respectable job with a highly reputed airlines. In this manner, he showed his influence and authority and made Geetika realise that she could not work anywhere else with dignity.
“This realization was unbearable and made Geetika highly vulnerable to further exploitation by the conspirators,” the police said.
The charge sheet also said Geetika has sent a mail to the under secretary (Gulf), Ministry of External Affairs along with all the mails threatening her about the extradition proceedings against her in Dubai, which police said was sent at the behest of Kanda, to check their authenticity.
The police said it will file a supplementary charge sheet as it is still ascertaining the role of Kanda’s emoloyee Chanshivroop, who it said had sent the forged e-mail to Geetika about the alleged extradition proceedings against her in Dubai and also kept a tab on her in the gulf country. (PTI)
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