Nithari serial killings: Koli, Pandher convicted of Noida woman's murder

Moninder Singh Pandher and co-accused in the 2006 Nithari serial murders Surinder Koli were taken into custody. File Pics/AFP

In one of the Nith­ari serial rape and murder cases, a local CBI court on Saturday held businessman Mo­ninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli guilty of rape, murder, abduction and criminal conspiracy in a case related to the killing of a 20-year-old woman. The court will declare the quantum of sentence on July 24.

The court took stock of the arguments from prosecution lawyer JP Sharma who argued that scientific evidence has proved that Koli abducted, killed and raped the woman and tampered with the evidence. "Pandher was involved in the conspiracy of the crime," the court ruled.

The gruesome cases came to light in 2006 when the police discovered the skeletons of 19 people, mostly children, from near Pandher's house in the Noida village of Nithari. Earlier, many children had gone missing from the nearby slums of Nithari and their parents alleged that the police had ignored their complaints.

The case
On October 5, 2006, the wo­man was returning from work, when Koli kidnapped her from outside the Pand­her residence. Koli behead­ed her and threw the skull beh­ind the house, which was found by the CBI. The parents identified her cloth­es, recovered from Koli.

19 No. of skeletons found at Pandher's house in Nithari