New Delhi: The brother of an air hostess who committed suicide and blamed Haryana legislator Gopal Kanda tore into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday for wooing the controversial legislator in its bid to retain power in the state.
Kanda is the chief of the Haryana Lokhit Party and won this week’s assembly polls from Sirsa. He was one of the MLAs flown to Delhi for a meeting with the BJP after the incumbent party led by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar fell six seats short of the majority mark.
“How can you give power to someone who is involved in a case of destroying and killing somebody?” said Ankit Sharma, brother of 23-year-old Geetika Sharma who was found hanging from the ceiling of a room in Delhi in 2012.
Kanda was arrested in August 2012 after Geetika, a former employee with his now-defunct MDLR airlines, took her own life while accusing him of harassment. He was a minister in the Congress government of Bhupinder Singh Hooda when the case came to light. Following widespread protests led by the BJP, Kanda was forced to resign and evaded arrest for days. The businessman-politician was charged with abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation, and was jailed in the case for a year. He was released on bail in 2014. In February 2013, Geetika and Ankit’s mother too committed suicide.
“There is a charge sheet against him of 1,800 pages which is full of evidences on what he did to my sister, how he destroyed her life…But that charge sheet is of no use if you don’t have a trial on time,” Ankit said, while speaking to CNN-News18. “I’ve suffered this loss for the last seven years and I’m still suffering. I still suffer when I go to a courtroom and see this person being treated like a VIP. It kills me inside.”
Kanda was associated with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) when he decided to contest the 2009 Haryana assembly polls. When the INLD did not give him a ticket, he fought as an independent candidate and won. As the Congress party fell short of majority, he pulled in other legislators to make up the numbers and went on to become a minister.
The Congress too attacked the BJP on the issue, accusing the party of double-speak.
“Once upon a time, the BJP took out rally against Gopal Kanda demanding his resignation and arrest. Now they are desperate to take his support in Haryana. Where is Beti Bachao Beti Padhao now? This is a disgrace... Is he purified by supporting BJP,” the party tweeted. BJP sources said Kanda will not be made a minister even if he supports the government.
Ankit also hit out at the ruling party’s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao slogan, calling it fake.
“I’m just requesting those people who are approaching him to just see his past, see what he did with someone’s life,” he said, while accusing Kanda of destroying evidence and turning witnesses hostile.
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