SSR’s family gets a CBI probe into suicide case but what about Geetika Sharma

The Film actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide case has taken several connotations in media from a debate on nepotism, attack on Karan johar and Alia Bhatt to now the witchcraft of his girlfriend, murder and gold-digging. The case of Sushant Singh Rajput Suicide has got widespread coverage in the mainstream media. Fans, Journalists, Politicians, Security forces all have been so invested in this case that the CBI had to finally take up the Investigation on the possibility of his murder. 

From when Sushant Singh Rajput’s family had alleged that his girlfriend had financially exploited him, ruined his mental health which led to his suicide, Rhea Chakraborty has been on receiving ends of media trials and character assassination. Her personal space has been completely taken away, and she is featured daily on news channels as a murderer, gold digger, witch and everything misogynistic. And all this when Sushant hasn’t even named her as the one responsible in his suicide note. 

But remember Politician Gopal Kanda what he is doing now? Her former employee Geetika Sharma and her mother both have killed themselves, and their suicide notes explicitly named Gopal Kanda behind their suicides. Gopal Kanda had sexually and mentally exploited and raped a comparatively young girl using his power, position, wealth and manipulation and pushed her at the brink of committing suicide at just the age of 23. This incidence led to another suicide, and that is that of Geetika’s mother Radhika, whose mental health deteriorated after her daughter had taken an extreme step to kill herself by hanging.

What happened next? Was justice served in this case? 

Many people might not even have heard it as this has been an old case which took place in the year 2012 and has also been kept under dark from the knowledge of common people using political power. For the people who don’t know about this case. Let me first bring what the matter was all about and what led to Geetika’s suicide.  

Geetika Sharma was just 17 when she gave her interview for the position of Air Hostess at MDLR Airlines which is owned by Gopal Goyal Kanda, Former Home Minister of Haryana in Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government.

According to an article by Firstpost, Gopal Kanda in his confession said this: “On seeing Geetika Sharma, I told my board members that this girl is smart and beautiful, so give her the job. Geetika was not yet 18. I said, train her for six months, and by then she will be 18. She was later handed an appointment letter as a trainee cabin crew. I liked Geetika a lot, so I quickly appointed her a senior cabin crew member in August 2008.” 

A female employee took her interview, and Kanda was not present there, but he was watching it all through his CCTV camera. According to Geetika’s Suicide note, Kanda used to have bad intentions for girls. And that he had no qualm in taking advantage of others. After giving her job, taking advantage of his position, Kanda began to manipulate, exploit and harass her. 

According to a report by Times Of India, “One one instance she told her mother that Kanda had begun to call her at odd hours to the office and the way he had touched her was inappropriate. She didn’t understand that the man was exploiting her and ruining her life even though he was offering her a much higher post and providing amenities like a company car and foreign visits. Around two months ago, she was sent to Singapore for business visits, and Kanda used to accompany her often.”

Geetika was made director of one of Kanda’s corporate offices in Gurgaon even though she was not a shareholder. The possibility, in this case, is that she was being offered very high positions by Kanda, which were beyond her qualifications and eligibility. This was done under the expectation that she will trade herself for the position and money.

Geetika might be unaware of these intentions and had accepted these offers without any thought that she is in trouble. But when she got hold of what was happening with her, it was too late for her to get away from the problem. She tried to leave her position, job and company but was harassed to stay there.

Firstpost has quoted Kanda saying that he had developed feelings of obsession and possessiveness for her. He said in his confession, “I wanted her to live with me, only me, as my own”.

Geetika Sharma finally sensing danger, left her job from MDLR and joined a new position in Dubai with Emirates Airlines. After which, Kanda began to harass her again and forced her to quit her job and get back to his company.

According to the report by Millenniumpost, Chanshivroop, who was then assistant HR Manager in MDLR group was sent to Dubai to coerce Geetika to resign from Emirates Airlines and return to India. He created a fake email ID to send Geetika a forged email that made her believe that she will have to go through alleged extradition proceedings against her in Dubai.

To mount pressure on her, Kanda even forged a case of fraud against Geetika Sharma in Gurgaon Police Station which was then sent to the Head of Investigation in Emirates Airline. Following which Geetika had to resign from Emirates and joined MDLR once again under pressure. 

According to the charge sheet of Geetika Suicide case, ‘Investigation discloses that accused Chanshivroop joined the conspiracy (hatched by co-accused Kanda and Aruna Chadha) and committed offences under section 471 IPC (using forged documents as genuine) and 66A IT Act (sending false messages). 

According to Geetika’s suicide note, Kanda aide Aruna Chadha was also involved in her harassment at MDLR. In her suicide note, Geetika wrote, “Now this time Aruna is also helping him to hurt me, harass me, sabotage my family”. Expressing that Kanda and Aruna are responsible for her suicide, she wrote, “They are the ones who have separated me today from my mom, dad n bhai. I hate them, these two”.

Following Geetika’s Suicide, the court framed charges of abetting rape, unnatural sex, suicide against Kanda and his aide Aruna Chadha. Other charges like criminal conspiracy were also levelled on the two accused. 

The court had then said in its statement, “The prosecution, in my view, has prima facie established that accused Gopal Goyal Kanda has repeatedly committed rape upon deceased victim from time to time during the period of her employment without her consent which is reflected by her behaviour of leaving MDLR, again and again, to escape from clutches of the inhuman sexual exploitation by the accused”.

The case was also filed against Chandshivroop, but he got bail and even managed to abscond to the US. 

Six months post Geetika’s Suicide, her mother Anuradha Sharma also committed suicide. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police P. Karunakaran, “She said in the note that she was in depression because of the death of her daughter and she too was committing suicide. She asked her son to be strong”. She also named the same people as the reason behind her suicide and alleged that they both have been harassing her family.

In the year 2014, Delhi High Court despite having strong evidence that Kanda was responsible for the two suicides, released him on bail. Charges of sexual exploitation in the case were also dropped. Geetika and her family never got justice, and the case is still pending in the court. In contrast, Kanda got to live a great life once again. He founded Haryana Lokhit Party with his brother Govind Kanda in 2014, post his release. He also used his power to prevent the media from reporting this case.

He even managed to win a seat in the Sirsa Assembly constituency election 2019. Yes, people voted for him despite his sick criminal record and history. He is currently a businessman and MLA in Haryana. If this is not a sorry state of our country’s judicial system, then what is?

The possibility is Geetika, and her family won’t ever get justice in this case due to the substantial political influence and power of Kanda. The media is more interested in finding if Rhea knows witchcraft and black magic or that she used such things to manipulate Sushant’s mind.

But if she is genuinely guilty, Sushant will get justice soon and all this because of selective sympathy or empathy of the media, politicians, police and of course us, citizens! Our society has failed a young girl, her dreams, her future, her life and even her death. May her soul rest in Peace and May she get justice.