Ex-air hostess suicide: Chaddha gets interim bail

A Delhi court Monday granted interim bail to Aruna Chaddha, a co-accused along with former Haryana minister Gopal Kanda, in the case of suicide by a former Delhi-based air hostess.

Additional Sessions Judge M.C. Gupta granted interim bail to Chaddha, an official of Kanda's now-defunct MDLR Airlines where the suicide victim, a Delhi resident, was employed.

She was granted interim bail till Nov 15 on the ground that there was no one to look after her eight-year-old daughter.

Chaddha and Kanda were accused of abetting the suicide of a 23-year-old former air hostess. Both Kanda and Chaddha have denied the allegations.

Chaddha was arrested Aug 8 last year and the trial court had rejected her bail plea Oct 15, 2012.

In a note, the suicide victim accused Kanda and Chaddha of harassing her and forcing her to kill herself. She died on the intervening night of Aug 4-5 at her house in Delhi.

Kanda was charged with rape, abetment of rape, abetment of suicide, criminal conspiracy, forgery under the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for hacking computers and sending offensive or false messages.

Police said in a charge sheet filed Oct 6, 2012, that Kanda was obsessed with the former air hostess and he and Chaddha had unleashed a series of wilful and malicious acts of mental torture, threat, blackmail and stress on her, which led her to take the extreme step.

Kanda was arrested Aug 18, 2012, after he surrendered before police in north Delhi's Ashok Vihar area.