New Delhi, February 15, 2013- In a tragic reminder of air hostess Geetika Sharma’s suicide, her mother too ended her life in a similar manner on Friday at her Ashok Vihar residence in the Capital.
Anuradha Sharma was found hanging from the same fan and in the same room as her daughter. In a suicide note, the 52-year-old government employee accused former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda and his close aide Aruna Chadha of forcing her and her daughter to take the extreme step.
The police claimed that they had not received any complaint from the family about harassment from Kanda or Chadha, who are prime accused in the Geetika suicide case. However, some relatives said Geetika’s brother Ankit was getting calls from unknown numbers asking them to compromise in the case.
According to the police, they received a PCR call at 5.50 pm from the woman’s husband, Dinesh Sharma. She had reportedly reached home around 4.30 pm when neither her son nor husband was around. Anuradha, who worked in the ministry of finance, was found hanging by her sister-in-law Jyoti Sharma, who lives in the same building.
Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) P. Karunakaran said, “In the suicide note, Anuradha said she was unable to deal with her daughter’s death. She said her daughter committed suicide because of Kanda and Aruna Chadha, and now she was being compelled to do the same.”
The police said they will register a fresh FIR against Kanda and Chadha for abetment to suicide. A senior police official said: “We are treating it as a separate case. If need be, Kanda and Chadha, who are in Tihar Jail, will be taken into police custody.”Geetika committed suicide in August last year alleging harassment by Kanda, who is currently in jail in connection with the case.
The 23-year-old airhostess, who was employed with the now defunct MDLR Airlines owned by Kanda, was found dead on August 5 at her Ashok Vihar residence in North West Delhi.
During police probe, it emerged that Geetika and her family were very well known to Kanda and his wife and both families had gone on tours and pilgrimage in the country.
Kanda had resigned as Haryana Minister of State for Home after he was booked in the case and was arrested a fortnight after Geetika committed suicide.
However, Kanda has been reiterating before the court that no case of abeting suicide is made out against him. He also said that Geetika was “hypersensitive”.
