Delhi govt showing least interest in prosecution of Gopal Goyal Kanda case: Court

A Delhi court on Friday took strong objection to non-appearance of special public prosecutor in a case against former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda for abetting the suicide of an air hostess employed with his aviation company in 2012, and issued a notice to the Delhi government.

Special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar said it was a very strange situation where the state was showing the least interest in prosecution of this case.

It said the court had to discharge three witnesses unexamined on Thursday as special public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan did not turn up.

"Today again, one witness Chunduru Eswara Sai Prasad, Assistant Director, CFSL, Hyderabad, is present, who has come all the way from Hyderabad to attend this court. But, still special public prosecutor is not present and proxy advocate submits that SPP is busy in Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi," the court noted.

 

The director (Prosecution) told the court that since a special public prosecutor has already been appointed by the Delhi government, he cannot appoint a prosecutor to conduct this case.

Special public prosecutor assigned for this case by the state government is not appearing since September 23, the court noted.

It said it is clear that the special secretary (Home) of the Delhi government has been apprised by the director (Prosecution) about the non-appearance of special public prosecutor and initial Investigating Officer Rajiv Ranjan, who is now additional DCP, has also been informed about this.

"In this scenario, when the special public prosecutor is not appearing and director (Prosecution) has shown his inability to depute any prosecutor for the case, this court is constrained to issue notice to the special secretary (Home), Government of Delhi, as well as to Rajiv Ranjan, Additional DCP, to appear and apprise this court how the state intends to prosecute this case," the court said.

The former air hostess, Geetika Sharma, earlier employed with Kanda's MLDR airlines, was found dead on August 5, 2012 at her Ashok Vihar residence in northwest Delhi. In her August 4 suicide note, she had said that she was ending her life due to "harassment" by Kanda and his employee Aruna Chadha.