Geetika Sharma suicide: Gopal Kanda surrenders

Former Haryana Minister Gopal Kanda surrendered before Delhi police early on Saturday and was arrested, 13 days after the suicide of his former employee Geetika Sharma, 23, who had accused him of having driven her to suicide.

Kanda had been “absconding” for the past 10 days after police served him a notice to appear before them to join investigations;  he surfaced at Bharat Nagar police station at 4 am on Saturday. On Friday, the Delhi High Court had dismissed Kanda’s anticipatory bail plea.

Before entering the police station, Kanda told reporters that he would cooperate in the investigations, as directed by the Delhi police.

“Kanda has surrendered and we have arrested him,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-West) P Karunakaran told PTI.

Kanda’s employee, Aruna Chaddha, a senior functionary with the now-defunct MDLR airlines, had earlier been arrested and is in judicial custody in connection with the suicide on August 5 of Geetika Sharma.

Sharma had, in her suicide note, accused Kanda and Chaddha of having harassed her and her family to rejoin the former Minister’s firm - after she had quit her job.

The court had on Thursday issued a Non Bailable Warrant (NBW) against Kanda and directed the police to execute the arrest warrant by August 24.

Delhi Police had conducted over 60 searches and raids in Haryana, Goa and Siliguri in West Bengal, and  questioned around 30 people. His brother Govind Kanda was also arrested yesterday for allegedly helping Kanda to evade police.

Kanda, who was last seen coming out of his Gurgaon residence on August 8, had on August 7 been served with a notice to assist in the investigations.

Read: The politician and the airhostess: A morality tale of amoral India .

With inputs from PTI