Former Haryana minister, his aide summoned in abetment to suicide case

Taking cognizance of allegations of abetment to suicide in the Anuradha Sharma case, a Delhi court has summoned former Haryana minister Gopal Kanda and his former aide Aruna Chadha. Anuradha’s daughter Geetika, an airhostess with the now defunct MDLR Airlines, was found hanging in a room at the family’s Ashok Vihar residence on August 5, 2012. In her suicide note, Geetika named her boss Kanda and his aide Chadha. Six months later, Anuradha committed suicide and left behind a suicide note, also blaming Kanda and Chadha for her death.

The order was passed by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ekta Gauba after Anuradha’s husband Dinesh Sharma appeared before the Rohini court on Monday, and verbally stated that his wife committed suicide due to the “harassment and torture meted out to her at the behest of Gopal Kanda and Aruna Chadha,” the order copy read.

Dinesh told the court that his wife left behind a note naming Kanda and Chadha, and that Anuradha was a crucial witness in his daughter Geetika’s death.

The court rapped the investigating officer, ACP Jawahar Singh, who had filed the cancellation report in the case, “for deliberately not attaching on record the statement of witnesses”. The court asked the Delhi Police to submit an action taken report against the IO, who told the court that the witness statements were recorded by the previous IO.

ACP Singh, who was present before the court, verbally stated that “the complaint of Dinesh Kumar, his son Ankit Sharma and his sister-in-law Jyoti Sharma and the entire police file is not traceable and the SHO of Bharat Nagar police station and naib court should trace the same”, the order read.
The court noted that the IO, in his cancellation report, has mentioned that Anuradha left behind two suicide notes. In one, she stated: “Ankit mujhe marna tha aaj nahi toh kal.” In another, she named both the accused and wrote, “In dono ne hamare ghar ko toda hai. In dono ko itni saza mile ye dono til til kar jail me hi marein.”

“This shows that the deceased, in her first suicide note, was under apprehension that she would die and in her second suicide note, she has imputed that she is dying because of the death of her daughter and due to Gopal Kanda and Aruna Chadha,” the court order read.