New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday refused bail to former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda in a case registered against him and his brother Govind for allegedly evading court proceedings in a 14-year-old cheque bounce case.
Gopal and Govind are named as accused in the case related to avoidance of court proceedings in a cheque bounce case which is heard at Patiala House Court here by Metropolitan Magistrate Jasjeet Kaur.
Govind is now on interim bail till October 31.
Meanwhile, at a Rohini court where Gopal Kanda, along with his aide Aruna Chadha, is accused in former air hostess Geetika Sharma suicide case, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate DK Jangala extended the judicial custody of the former minister till October 17.
Chaddah has also moved a bail plea before District and Additional Sessions Judge SK Sarvaria who posted it for October 15. The politician and Chadha have been recently chargesheeted by the Delhi Police for allegedly abetting the suicide of 23-year-old Geetika.
During the hearing on Kanda`s bail plea in the Patiala House court, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for Gopal, said his client is in custody for over a month in this case and he had been acquitted in the cheque bounce case recently by a court here.
He said the magistrate had declared Gopal as a proclaimed offender as he did not appear before him in the cheque bounce case but the fact is that the police had not properly served the summon to the former minister.
"Despite he (Gopal) being the minister in Haryana, the Delhi Police did not serve the summon to him properly. Being a minister, he cannot flee. It was only because the summon was not properly served upon him by the police that he could not appear before the court," Gupta said.
The police, however, opposed Gopal`s bail plea saying the magistrate had declared him a proclaimed offender in the case after due consideration of all facts and he had evaded appearance in the court, bail should not be granted.
The case against Kanda brothers for evading the court was recently registered by the Delhi police on a court`s direction after they were declared as proclaimed offenders in the cheque bounce case which they had settled in August this year in an out-of-court agreement.
The police had registered the case against the Kanda brothers under section 174-A (punishment for non-appearance in response to court proclamation) of the IPC which entails a jail term up to three years.
The Kanda brothers had been facing the court summons and warrants since 1998 in the cheque bounce case related to dishonour of a Rs 4.10 lakh cheque issued by them.
The cheque bounce case was settled between the two parties on August 27 after the brothers paid Rs 4.10 lakh to the complainant.
In the bail plea moved in the Rohini court, Chadha said the charge sheet in the suicide case has already been filed and the investigation is also complete.
he district judge has also called for the charge sheet from the trial court on October 15.
Kanda and Chadha have been charge sheeted under various provisions of the IPC relating to abetment of suicide, criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation, destruction of evidence and forgery. They have also been booked under the Information and Technology Act which deals with hacking of computers.
Geetika was found dead on August 05 at her Ashok Vihar residence in North West Delhi. In her August 04 suicide note, she had said she was ending her life due to "harassment" by Kanda and Chadha, a charge denied by them.
Kanda was arrested on August 18 after he had surrendered before the police and Chadha was arrested on August 08.
PTI
