Tuesday, a Delhi court cleared Gopal Goyal Kanda and another person in the case of aiding Geetika Sharma’s suicide. According to the court, it is also possible that the former air hostess killed herself for other reasons.
Aruna Chadha, a friend of Gopal Kanda, was also cleared by the court of all accusations, including aiding suicide, criminal conspiracy, destroying evidence, and forgery.
On August 5, 2012, Geetika Sharma, a former flight attendant for Gopal Kanda’s MLDR airlines who eventually rose to the position of director for one of his businesses, was discovered dead at her Ashok Vihar home in northwest Delhi.
She described Gopal Kanda and Aruna Chadha’s “harassment” as the reason behind her suicide in a note she left on August 4. Six months after Geetika Sharma’s death, her mother too killed herself.
The prosecution’s failure to establish guilt under Section 306 (Suicide Aid) read with 120-B IPC—which requires proof that the circumstances leading to the dead Geetika Sharma’s suicide were brought about by criminal conspiracy—was highlighted by the court.
The Delhi court further stated that the former air hostess knew the defendant Aruna Chadha well and regularly socialized with her. The dead used to divulge her personal secrets to the accused Aruna Chadha, demonstrating that their acquaintance was anything but casual.
The court also noted that Geetika Sharma had visited the doctor’s clinic in March 2012 for an abortion since she was single and had been referred by Aruna Chadha, during the testimony of a doctor who was a witness. As a result, there is a good chance that Aruna Chadha is aware of the individual who was engaging in physical contact with Geetika Sharma.
The court stated that it cannot be completely ruled out that Aruna Chadha and Gopal Goyal Kanda may have revealed this information to the deceased’s mother via telephone on August 3 and August 4, 2012, respectively, as well-wishers for the family or out of jealousy. This may have caused Geetika Sharma and her mother to argue after she returned from Mumbai on August 4, 2012, and Geetika Sharma later committed suicide.
“Any sane and prudent person would not socialize with or accept benefits from the very person who creates stress and tension in his or her life,” the court stated. By no stretch of the imagination can the act of the accused, Gopal Kanda, be considered an act by which he wanted to put deceased Geetika Sharma in a situation where she had no choice but to commit suicide. He did this by appointing Geetika Sharma as director, the president of Sundale Educational Society, giving her a BMW, paying for her MBA program, and taking her with him to Singapore.
If the police filed an appeal against his conviction, the court ordered Gopal Kanda to show up in person and post a personal bail of one lakh rupees.
