Gopal Kanda to remain out; HC rejects bail cancellation pleas

The Delhi High Court today dismissed two pleas of city police and the victim's brother seeking cancellation of bail granted by a lower court to former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda in air hostess Geetika Sharma suicide case.
The court had reserved its order on the pleas on May 16 after Additional Solicitor General Sidhartha Luthra, appearing for Delhi police and lawyers for Kanda and Ankit Sharma concluded their respective arguments.
Dealing with the plea of Kanda that media reporting in the trial be halted as reports are "prejudicial" in nature, a bench of Justice V P Vaish said that "fair reporting" of court proceedings cannot be stalled.

It, however, restrained the media from publishing contents related to charges which have been dropped by the High Court.
The lower court had on October 14 last year dismissed the bail plea of Kanda and, later, on March 4 this year, granted him bail after noting that co-accused Chadha had been released on bail by the high court.
Kanda and Chadha are facing trial for abetting the suicide of 23-year-old Geetika who was earlier employed as an air hostess in Kanda's MDLR airlines.

Earlier, the court had asked Kanda and Delhi Police to file their replies to the bail cancellation plea.

The plea had alleged that being an "influential" politician, Kanda may tamper with evidence and influence the witnesses in the trial.
The trial court had, while granting bail to Kanda, observed that the former minister had been in judicial custody since August, 2012 in connection with the case.
Chadha was arrested on August 8, 2012, while Kanda had surrendered a few days later on August 18.
Both the accused have also been charged with forgery for cheating and harming the reputation of the victim.
Geetika was found dead on August 5, 2012, at her Ashok Vihar residence in north west Delhi. In her suicide note, she had said she was ending her life due to "harassment" by Kanda and Chadha.

The police had in its charge-sheet said Kanda was obsessed with the victim and was putting pressure on her to come back to his company.