New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has summoned the trial court record in the abetment to suicide case of deceased air hostess Geetika Sharma’s mother, who killed herself six months after her daughter’s death.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma was hearing a plea by the state challenging the trial court’s October 26, 2020, order setting aside of the summons to former Haryana Minister Gopal Kanda and his aide Aruna Chadha, a senior manager in his MDLR company, in the case.
The judge said that the trial court record of the case be summoned in digitised form for October 31, also the next date of hearing.
For the state, Additional Public Prosecutor Amit Sahni argued that the trial court record is crucial for the adjudication of this matter.
In October 2020, an additional sessions judge had annulled a magisterial court’s order summoning Kanda and Chadha as accused in the case.
Initially, the Delhi Police had submitted a closure report in the case, which was rejected by the magisterial court. The magistrate said that a case was established against the two and took cognisance of the matter under the Indian Penal Code Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 (common intention), leading to the summons issued to both individuals.
Geetika’s mother, Anuradha Sharma, was found hanging in February 2013, from a fan in her Ashok Vihar residence.
In a suicide note, the 52-year-old government employee accused Kanda and Chadha of pressuring her and her daughter to take the extreme step.
A Delhi court on July 25 acquitted Kanda in the abetment of suicide case of air hostess Geetika, who was found dead on August 5, 2012, at her Delhi residence.
Special judge Vikas Dhull of Rouse Avenue Court acquitted Kanda and Chadha in the case.
Sharma, who worked as an air hostess in Kanda’s MLDR airlines, was found dead a day after writing a suicide note. In her note, she had said she was ending her life due to the alleged harassment she was facing by Kanda and the other person.
During Sharma’s stint with the airlines, she was promoted as a director of one of Kanda’s companies in three years of her joining as a trainee. After the registration of the case, Kanda was asked to resign as minister.
Amid other charges under the Indian Penal Code, the trial court had also framed charges of Section 376 (rape) and 377 (unnatural sex) against Kanda only for these to be quashed by the Delhi High Court later.
He had started MDLR Airlines from Gurugram in 2008, however, after being trapped in the controversies, the airlines ceased operations in 2009.
–IANS