Kanda formally charged with abetting Geetika's suicide

New Delhi: Former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda was Saturday formally charged with abetting Geetika Sharma's suicide with a police chargesheet, filed in a Delhi court, also blaming him for destroying evidence and conspiracy. The victim's family praised the investigators' efforts.

Filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) D.K. Jangala, the chargesheet ran into over 1,000 pages. Police informed the court that a supplementary chargesheet against one of Kanda's associate may be filed later.

Police have also booked Aruna Chaddha, former official of Kanda's now-defunct MDLR Airlines where Geetika had worked. Both Kanda and Chaddha are in judicial custody.

ACMM Jangala took cognisance of the chargesheet and posted the matter for Oct 9 for hearing.

"I take cognisance of the chargesheet," the judge said.

The chargesheet, brought to court in steel trunks, cites 65 witnesses, including father, mother and brother of Geetika, who committed suicide in August.

"The above facts (mentioned in chargesheet) disclose that the accused Kanda and Chaddha have committed offence under section 120-B criminal conspiracy read with 306 (abetment to suicide)/506 (punishment for criminal intimidation)/201 (destruction of evidence)/466 (forgery of record)/467 (forgery of valuable security)/468 (forgery for purpose of cheating)/469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation)/471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record)/34 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66 of Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 (hacking with computer system/sending offensive messages)," police said.

Geetika's brother Ankit Sharma praised the investigators' efforts. "Police have done a great job in finding out the sequence of events as they have mentioned in the chargesheet."

"All the evidence prove Kanda and Chaddha forced my sister to commit suicide...If Kanda comes out on bail, he will try to ruin the case by using his power," he said.

Police told the court that Geetika was undergoing a traumatic experience of an abortion for which accused Chaddha had accompanied her. She was also facing false allegations of forgery, cheating and fraud when she was forced to resign from Emirates Airlines, which she joined after leaving Kanda's company.

The investigators said that by sending forged and false emails, Kanda had created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust around Geetika, in which she was not able to hold her head high and face her colleagues.

She resigned from the company of Kanda to save her dignity but Kanda again threatened her mother that he would create the same set of circumstances again.

"After hearing her mother that Kanda was threatening to register a false first information report (FIR) against her at Gurgoan, and was going to publicise this fact, which Geetika thought would jeopardise her future, she rightly feared that she would be viewed with suspicion and distrust by her colleagues, friends and future employers and became extremely distressed and depressed and, therefore, chose to end her life by hanging herself," police said.

Police also told the court that investigation was on to ascertain the role of Kanda's associate Chanshivroop Singh. If needed a supplementary chargesheet would be filed against him.

Chanshivroop Singh was the man who went to Dubai and told Emirates Airlines that Geetika had got the job by using forged document.

Police said that Chanshivroop was working as assistant manager in MDLR Group in 2010. He was appointed for this post and sent to Dubai to ensure that Geetika lost her job there.

The investigators said some witnesses were yet to be examined and documents were still to be collected. The results of tests on electronic evidence were yet to be received from the forensic lab.

Geetika, 23, a former flight attendant of MDLR Airlines, had in her suicide note accused Kanda and Chaddha of harassing and forcing her to kill herself. She died on the night of Aug 4-5 at her house in Delhi's Ashok Vihar area. Kanda and Chaddha have denied the allegations.

A police officer said that examination of documents received from Microsoft revealed that Geetika had prepared a draft complaint against Kanda and emailed it to her own account Oct 4, 2010.

Geeetika's complaint said that she was doing" it to create and preserve records of her unbearable agonies that she was going through because of the designs of Kanda and Chaddha, the officer said.

Kanda formally charged with abetting Geetika's suicide

New Delhi: Former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda was Saturday formally charged with abetting Geetika Sharma's suicide with a police chargesheet, filed in a Delhi court, also blaming him for destroying evidence and conspiracy. The victim's family praised the investigators' efforts.

Filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) D.K. Jangala, the chargesheet ran into over 1,000 pages. Police informed the court that a supplementary chargesheet against one of Kanda's associate may be filed later.

Police have also booked Aruna Chaddha, former official of Kanda's now-defunct MDLR Airlines where Geetika had worked. Both Kanda and Chaddha are in judicial custody.

ACMM Jangala took cognisance of the chargesheet and posted the matter for Oct 9 for hearing.

"I take cognisance of the chargesheet," the judge said.

The chargesheet, brought to court in steel trunks, cites 65 witnesses, including father, mother and brother of Geetika, who committed suicide in August.

"The above facts (mentioned in chargesheet) disclose that the accused Kanda and Chaddha have committed offence under section 120-B criminal conspiracy read with 306 (abetment to suicide)/506 (punishment for criminal intimidation)/201 (destruction of evidence)/466 (forgery of record)/467 (forgery of valuable security)/468 (forgery for purpose of cheating)/469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation)/471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record)/34 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66 of Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 (hacking with computer system/sending offensive messages)," police said.

Geetika's brother Ankit Sharma praised the investigators' efforts. "Police have done a great job in finding out the sequence of events as they have mentioned in the chargesheet."

"All the evidence prove Kanda and Chaddha forced my sister to commit suicide...If Kanda comes out on bail, he will try to ruin the case by using his power," he said.

Police told the court that Geetika was undergoing a traumatic experience of an abortion for which accused Chaddha had accompanied her. She was also facing false allegations of forgery, cheating and fraud when she was forced to resign from Emirates Airlines, which she joined after leaving Kanda's company.

The investigators said that by sending forged and false emails, Kanda had created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust around Geetika, in which she was not able to hold her head high and face her colleagues.

She resigned from the company of Kanda to save her dignity but Kanda again threatened her mother that he would create the same set of circumstances again.

"After hearing her mother that Kanda was threatening to register a false first information report (FIR) against her at Gurgoan, and was going to publicise this fact, which Geetika thought would jeopardise her future, she rightly feared that she would be viewed with suspicion and distrust by her colleagues, friends and future employers and became extremely distressed and depressed and, therefore, chose to end her life by hanging herself," police said.

Police also told the court that investigation was on to ascertain the role of Kanda's associate Chanshivroop Singh. If needed a supplementary chargesheet would be filed against him.

Chanshivroop Singh was the man who went to Dubai and told Emirates Airlines that Geetika had got the job by using forged document.

Police said that Chanshivroop was working as assistant manager in MDLR Group in 2010. He was appointed for this post and sent to Dubai to ensure that Geetika lost her job there.

The investigators said some witnesses were yet to be examined and documents were still to be collected. The results of tests on electronic evidence were yet to be received from the forensic lab.

Geetika, 23, a former flight attendant of MDLR Airlines, had in her suicide note accused Kanda and Chaddha of harassing and forcing her to kill herself. She died on the night of Aug 4-5 at her house in Delhi's Ashok Vihar area. Kanda and Chaddha have denied the allegations.

A police officer said that examination of documents received from Microsoft revealed that Geetika had prepared a draft complaint against Kanda and emailed it to her own account Oct 4, 2010.

Geeetika's complaint said that she was doing" it to create and preserve records of her unbearable agonies that she was going through because of the designs of Kanda and Chaddha, the officer said.

AIE to operate 27 addnl flights from Kerala, Mangalore to Gulf

Kochi: Air India Express (AIE) today said it would operate 27 additional flights from Kerala and Mangalore to various Gulf destinations from October 28.

Announcing its winter schedule, the airline said it has increased services from Kerala and Mangalore airports to Middle East destinations from 92 a week to 119 a week.

As per schedule, Kochi will connect cities of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha and Sharjah daily, Muscat thrice a week.

Passengers from here will be offered convenient connections to Dammam via Kozhikode daily, and to Kuwait three times a week, with both boarding cards issued in Kochi and the baggage tagged to the ultimate destination, AIE said.

Kozhikode would connect Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain, Doha, Dammam and Muscat daily; Salalah twice a week, Kuwait thrice a week and one weekly service to the city of Al-Ain, AIE said in a press release here.

Thiruvananthapuram would connect Abu Dhabi and Dubai daily, thrice weekly to Muscat, four times a week to Sharjah and twice a week to the city of Salalah in Oman.

Mangalore will see the budget airline flying twice daily to Dubai, three times a week to Muscat, Abu Dhabi and twice weekly to Doha and Bahrain.

On the domestic sector, AIE will operate daily flights to Mumbai from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, besides thrice weekly from Kozhikode to Mumbai and back.

‘This is the first time ever since its inception in 2005 that Air India Express is deploying so many services from the cities of Kerala and Mangalore to the Gulf and back’, an airlines spokesperson said.

This increase in capacity would help stabilise fares to a very large extent, benefiting the travelling public of this region, he said.

AIE to operate 27 addnl flights from Kerala, Mangalore to Gulf

Kochi: Air India Express (AIE) today said it would operate 27 additional flights from Kerala and Mangalore to various Gulf destinations from October 28.

Announcing its winter schedule, the airline said it has increased services from Kerala and Mangalore airports to Middle East destinations from 92 a week to 119 a week.

As per schedule, Kochi will connect cities of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha and Sharjah daily, Muscat thrice a week.

Passengers from here will be offered convenient connections to Dammam via Kozhikode daily, and to Kuwait three times a week, with both boarding cards issued in Kochi and the baggage tagged to the ultimate destination, AIE said.

Kozhikode would connect Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain, Doha, Dammam and Muscat daily; Salalah twice a week, Kuwait thrice a week and one weekly service to the city of Al-Ain, AIE said in a press release here.

Thiruvananthapuram would connect Abu Dhabi and Dubai daily, thrice weekly to Muscat, four times a week to Sharjah and twice a week to the city of Salalah in Oman.

Mangalore will see the budget airline flying twice daily to Dubai, three times a week to Muscat, Abu Dhabi and twice weekly to Doha and Bahrain.

On the domestic sector, AIE will operate daily flights to Mumbai from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, besides thrice weekly from Kozhikode to Mumbai and back.

‘This is the first time ever since its inception in 2005 that Air India Express is deploying so many services from the cities of Kerala and Mangalore to the Gulf and back’, an airlines spokesperson said.

This increase in capacity would help stabilise fares to a very large extent, benefiting the travelling public of this region, he said.

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 Neanderthals bred with modern humans outside Africa 37,000 years ago

Tags: Neanderthals, modern humans, 37,000 years ago
WASHINGTON, DC: Harvard and Max Planck Institute scientists have estimated the date when Neanderthals and modern Europeans last shared ancestors to explain why Neanderthals are most closely related to people outside Africa It suggests that interbreeding occurred when modern humans carrying Upper Paleolithic technologies encountered Neanderthals as they expanded out of Africa When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010 it revealed that people outside Africa share slightly more genetic variants with Neanderthals than Africans do. One scenario that could explain this observation is that modern humans mixed with Neanderthals when they came out of Africa. An alternative, but more complex, scenario is that African populations ancestral to both Neanderthals and modern humans remained subdivided over a few hundred thousand years and that those more related to Neanderthals subsequently left Africa. Dr Sriram Sankararaman and colleagues measured the length of DNA pieces in the genomes of Europeans that are similar to Neanderthals. Since recombination between chromosomes when egg and sperm cells are formed reduces the size of such pieces in each generation, the Neanderthal-related pieces will be smaller the longer they have spent in the genomes of present-day people. The team estimate that Neanderthals and modern humans last exchanged genes between 37,000 and 86,000 years ago, well after modern humans appeared outside Africa but potentially before they started spreading across Eurasia. This suggests that Neanderthals (or their close relatives) had children with the direct ancestors of present-day people outside Africa The research has been published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

 Neanderthals bred with modern humans outside Africa 37,000 years ago

Tags: Neanderthals, modern humans, 37,000 years ago
WASHINGTON, DC: Harvard and Max Planck Institute scientists have estimated the date when Neanderthals and modern Europeans last shared ancestors to explain why Neanderthals are most closely related to people outside Africa It suggests that interbreeding occurred when modern humans carrying Upper Paleolithic technologies encountered Neanderthals as they expanded out of Africa When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010 it revealed that people outside Africa share slightly more genetic variants with Neanderthals than Africans do. One scenario that could explain this observation is that modern humans mixed with Neanderthals when they came out of Africa. An alternative, but more complex, scenario is that African populations ancestral to both Neanderthals and modern humans remained subdivided over a few hundred thousand years and that those more related to Neanderthals subsequently left Africa. Dr Sriram Sankararaman and colleagues measured the length of DNA pieces in the genomes of Europeans that are similar to Neanderthals. Since recombination between chromosomes when egg and sperm cells are formed reduces the size of such pieces in each generation, the Neanderthal-related pieces will be smaller the longer they have spent in the genomes of present-day people. The team estimate that Neanderthals and modern humans last exchanged genes between 37,000 and 86,000 years ago, well after modern humans appeared outside Africa but potentially before they started spreading across Eurasia. This suggests that Neanderthals (or their close relatives) had children with the direct ancestors of present-day people outside Africa The research has been published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

    Pope Benedict's ex-butler jailed for theft

Tags: Pope Benedict's ex-butler, jailed
VATICAN CITY: A Vatican court on Saturday found Pope Benedict's former butler guilty of stealing sensitive documents and sentenced him to a year and a half in prison. The court delivered its verdict after a two-hour deliberation on the last day of the trial. The prosecution had asked for a three-year sentence. The defence asked the court to reduce the charges from "aggravated theft" to "misappropriation" and for him to be freed. Paolo Gabriele had earlier told the court in his last appeal that he had acted exclusively out of deep, "visceral" love for the Roman Catholic Church and the pope. The head of the three-judge panel, speaking "In the name of Holiness," said Gabriele had abused the pontiff's trust in him. The judge said he had given Gabriele a lighter sentence than the three years sought by the prosecution because he had no previous criminal record. Gabriele's lawyer told reporters he would be returned to house arrest in the Vatican for the time being. She said she would decide after she hears the court's formal explanation of its verdict whether to file an appeal.

    Pope Benedict's ex-butler jailed for theft

Tags: Pope Benedict's ex-butler, jailed
VATICAN CITY: A Vatican court on Saturday found Pope Benedict's former butler guilty of stealing sensitive documents and sentenced him to a year and a half in prison. The court delivered its verdict after a two-hour deliberation on the last day of the trial. The prosecution had asked for a three-year sentence. The defence asked the court to reduce the charges from "aggravated theft" to "misappropriation" and for him to be freed. Paolo Gabriele had earlier told the court in his last appeal that he had acted exclusively out of deep, "visceral" love for the Roman Catholic Church and the pope. The head of the three-judge panel, speaking "In the name of Holiness," said Gabriele had abused the pontiff's trust in him. The judge said he had given Gabriele a lighter sentence than the three years sought by the prosecution because he had no previous criminal record. Gabriele's lawyer told reporters he would be returned to house arrest in the Vatican for the time being. She said she would decide after she hears the court's formal explanation of its verdict whether to file an appeal.