New Delhi:
Controversial Haryana MLA Gopal Kanda has been acquitted by a Delhi court of the 2012 suicide of a former flight attendant employed by his now-defunct airline.
Rouse Avenue Court Special Judge Vikas Dhull also acquitted co-defendant Aruna Chadha in the case, saying the prosecution could not prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
Geetika Sharma, a former flight attendant in Mr Kanda’s MLDR airlines, who was later elevated to become a director of one of his companies, was found dead at her residence in Delhi on 5 August 2012.
In her August 4 suicide note, she had alleged “harassment” by Kanda, 46, and another person. Six months after her death, Geetika Sharma’s mother committed suicide in the family’s two-bedroom apartment in northwest Delhi.
Mr. Kanda, an influential politician and businessman, was a minister in the Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He was forced to resign as Home Secretary following the registration of the case.
Mr Kanda, 46, was charged under various sections of IPC, including criminal harassment, destruction of evidence, forgery and other charges.
The court had also brought allegations of rape and unnatural sex against him, but the Delhi High Court overturned them.
Geetika Sharma joined the MDLR in 2006 from Gopal Kanda. After the airline closed, she moved to Dubai in 2010 to work for Emirates Airlines.
But Mr Kanda allegedly forged letters to ensure she had to return to India just five months later. He then blackmailed her into working for him again, her family had claimed.