Airhostess case: Absconding MLA's properties raided

A Delhi Police team raided various establishments, including the palatial residence in Sirsa, of former Haryana Minister Gopal Kanda, embroiled in airhostess Geetika Sharma's suicide case.

The police conducted the raids after the team reached Sirsa around midnight on Wednesday.

The police searched "absconding" Gopal Kanda's office named Shoe-Camp near Parshuram Chowk, his residence on Rania Road and also the premises of the recently launched MDK International School on the outskirts of the town, police sources said.

The team led by Assistant Commissioner of Delhi Police, Aiash Mohammad and five others spent over an hour at Kanda's residence.

They searched for Kanda, who has been booked in the Geetika Sharma suicide case, by the Delhi Police.

Kanda did not appear before police on Wednesday for questioning. Police said he is "absconding" and threatened to initiate proceedings to obtain a non-bailable warrant against him.

The in-charge of the police party refused to comment or respond to queries from media persons who had gathered at Kanda's residence.

Meanwhile, supporters of Independent MLA from his assembly constituency have given a bandh call for Sirsa on Thursday.

Kanda supporters started gathering in his Shoe Camp offices from where they will take out a procession in the town demanding a fair inquiry into the case as they claim that Kanda is being falsely implicated.

Kanda had on Wednesday moved a Delhi court seeking anticipatory bail.

Fearing arrest, Kanda moved a District and Sessions Court in Rohini court complex in Delhi seeking anticipatory bail after his aide Aruna Chadha was arrested by the police.

Geetika Sharma (23), a former airhostess with Kanda's now defunct MDLR airline, alleged in her suicide note on Sunday that she was ending her life due to harassment by Kanda and MDLR official Aruna Chaddha.

Kanda and Chaddha had denied the allegations.

Geetika was found hanging in her flat in North West Delhi on August 5.

Kanda, an Independent MLA who held Home, Urban Bodies and Industry and Commerce portfolios, resigned the following day.