Dismissing the anticipatory bail plea of former Haryana minister Gopal Kanda, who has been absconding to evade arrest in the Geetika Sharma suicide case, the Delhi high court strongly rebuked the city police on Friday for deliberately being slack in arresting him. “Because of actions of the police, the concerned accused appears to be sitting comfortably somewhere without any apprehension of his arrest by the police,” said Justice P.K. Bhasin, rejecting Mr Kanda’s application for anticipatory bail.
The court said his plea could not be accepted on the ground that he had not filed it himself but through a man who claims to be his brother. “Why has Gopal Kanda not sworn the affidavit in support of his application. This anticipatory bail application is liable to be rejected, without going into the merits at all, only on the ground that the same has not been filed by the person apprehending his arrest,” Justice Bhasin said in the order.
Mr Kanda went underground after the suicide note of 23-year-old Geetika Sharma, his former employee who was found hanging at her house here on August 5, blamed him for ruining her life and coercing her to take the extreme step. Mr Kanda’s legal representatives moved the high court for anticipatory bail after the application was rejected by a lower court.
According to sources, Mr Kanda is most likely to approach the Supreme Court next week for anticipatory bail and a stay on the non-bailable warrant issued against him by the lower court.
The prosecution had opposed Mr Kanda’s bail plea saying his conduct showed that he was not willing to cooperate in the investigation, which was at a preliminary stage. The accused had failed to respond to the notice issued to him two days after the incident asking him to appear before the police and such conduct provided sufficient ground to refuse him bail, additional solicitor general Siddharth Luthra had told the HC.
The high court on Friday reprimanded the police for not attempting to arrest Mr Kanda soon after the incident and simply issuing notice to him to appear for questioning. The court also criticised the Delhi police for moving an application in the lower court seeking permission to search Mr Kanda’s residence but not pressing it later. “The application subsequently got dismissed as withdrawn. This application appears to have been filed only to bring it on record from the side of the police that the accused himself has gone underground and the police is unable to arrest him so that investigation gets delayed,” the order said.