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New Delhi: Gopal Goyal Kanda visited Dubai to force air hostess Geetika Sharma to quit her job with a leading airline there, the police has told the Delhi High Court while opposing the anticipatory bail plea of the former Haryana Minister, who has been on the run for six days now as he avoids arrest, He is accused of abetting the suicide of 23-year-old Geetika. 

The police said in court that Mr Kanda’s employee, Aruna Chadha, who has been arrested in the case, accompanied him to Dubai.

When Geetika Sharma did decide to return to India and work for a company owned by Mr Kanda, there was an unusual aspect to her job - her contract required her to meet with Mr Kanda after work. The police have alleged in court that the former minister and Ms Chaddha suppressed information that between March 30, 2009 and  October 20, 2010 Geetika worked as a coordinator with Mr Kanda’s MDLR hotels and had to report to him every day.

Two weeks ago, Ms Sharma hanged herself at her home in Delhi. Her suicide note blames Mr Kanda, who is missing, and a senior executive who works for him, Aruna Chadha, who has been arrested. Ms Sharma’s family says Mr Kanda, who was a minister in the Haryana government when she died, harassed and blackmailed her. He has been charged with abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation; but the police has not been able to find him.

The Delhi High Court will decide on whether to grant anticipatory bail to Mr Kanda. A lower court refused his request last week. His lawyers have appealed against that verdict. In their petition asking for bail, they have described Ms Sharma as a "hyper-sensitive girl" who felt "jilted" by Mr Kanda.

Ms Sharma first joined MDLR, an airline owned by Mr Kanda, in 2006, when she was just 17. She tried to quit that same year, but her salary was hiked. In 2009, MDLR stopped flying and Ms Sharma moved to the UAE to work for Emirates Airways in August 2010. Just seven months later, she was back in Delhi, working for another company owned by Mr Kanda.
The police has Ms Sharma’s laptop - it hopes to prove that stored there are emails sent by Mr Kanda, warning her to return to work for him. But sources say that computers at MDLR offices have been scrubbed of data that could have been incriminating for Mr Kanda.

Before he went underground, the politician told NDTV that the fact that she began a second job with him proves that she was not uncomfortable in any way around him. He denied harassing her in any way. Her family says that Mr Kanda made life so tough for Ms Sharma when she moved away, that she had no choice but to return to his turf.