Geetika Sharma`s mother cremated; another note for son found

Former air hostess Geetika Sharma`s mother, Anuradha Sharma committed suicide by hanging on Friday evening.

New Delhi: Former air hostess Geetika Sharma`s mother, who committed suicide by hanging herself, alleging harassment from those named for her daughter`s suicide, was cremated on Saturday. She left another suicide note for her son, asking him to be "strong”, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police P Karunakaran told a news agency that Anuradha Sharma`s note was found from the spot of her suicide, addressed to her son Ankit. "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," he said. Anuradha`s last rites took place at Punjabi Bagh cremation ground in the presence of her family members and neighbours. Her husband Dinesh Sharma and son kept crying inconsolably. A distraught Ankit fainted at the funeral but he regained consciousness later. Blaming the same people - former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda and his employee Aruna Chaddha - that her daughter had named for driving her to suicide, Geetika`s mother said she was taking the extreme step because her family was being harassed by the duo. Anuradha, 52, was found hanging in her bedroom here at her Ashok Vihar residence around 5.50 pm on Friday. Karunakaran said that Anuradha was in depression since the death of her daughter August last year. "On the day of the suicide, her son Ankit had called his mother to have lunch with him at his office, a few kilometres from the house... she refused to step out and said she would eat at home," the police officer said. "A relative, Jyoti, spotted Anuradha`s body hanging from the ceiling fan in the same room on the first floor where Geetika had committed suicide. She then informed Ankit," said the officer. A new case of abetment to suicide has been registered against Kanda and Chaddha at the Bharat Nagar police station. "We are also taking help of call records of Anuradha Sharma to ascertain whether Kanda, Chaddha or their aides were threatening or harassing her family," Karunakaran told a news agency. Geetika, 23, a former air hostess in the defunct MDLR airlines belonging to Kanda, had committed suicide on the intervening night of Aug 4-5, 2012 by hanging herself from a ceiling fan at her house. She had left two suicide notes naming Kanda and Chaddha for harassing her and driving her to suicide. Both Kanda, who is the prime accused in the case for abetting the suicide of Geetika, and Chaddha, are now in judicial custody, and have denied the allegations. IANS