Nithari Case: Pandher and Koli Receive Death Sentence

The infamous serial Nithari rape and murder case has finally has a verdict. Convicts Moninder Singh Pandher and his house-help Surinder Koli have been awarded a death sentence in the case by a special CBI court, today.

Special Judge, Pawan Kumar Tripathi, took the judgement after finding the two guilty of rape, murder, abduction and criminal conspiracy of many girls, including a 20-year-old woman named Pinky Sarkar.

The court, located in Ghaziabad, termed the case “rarest of the rare” while the two convicts were present at the court. But prosecutor of Pandher, Devraj Singh, has decided to appeal against the order in a higher court.

"Pandher was never named in the CBI chargesheet in this case and the CBI's investigation had proved Pandher had left for Dehradun on October 5, 2006, from his Noida office and returned on October 10, which in turn proved that Pandher was not involved in the Pinky Sarkar case," Singh said, TOI reported.

However, lawyer JP Sharma stated that forensic evidence proved that Koli abducted, killed and raped the woman and also meddled with evidence.

“After so many years finally Pinky’s soul will rest in peace. We knew that one day we will get justice. We were shocked when we first heard that how Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher used to kill girls,” Geeta Sarkar told News18.

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The CBI charge sheet revealed that Koli had accepted pestering Pinky to come into the house on October 5, 2006. She was coming back from work, after which he killed her, dismembered her body, and dumped the body parts in a drain in the rear of the house. Her skull was found lying behind the house.

Pandher’s lawyer also pleaded for the minimum sentence for him because he is a patient of high blood pressure and diabetes.

Pinky’s parents who currently live in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district expressed joy over the verdict. Pinky’s mother Bandana Sarkar travelled all the way to Delhi for the verdict. She was with Pinky’s aunt Geeta Sarkar in Gandhi Colony when both welled up on hearing the verdict.

“After so many years finally Pinky’s soul will rest in peace. We knew that one day we will get justice. We were shocked when we first heard that how Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher used to kill girls,” Geeta Sarkar, Pinky's aunt, told News18.

She also disclosed that there was a girl involved in the case as she was key to bringing girls from West Bengal to Pandher’s house. “I don’t know whether she was arrested or not. We want stern action against her too. She is also one of the key accused in the case,” she said.

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“All the evidence went against Surinder Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher. We were confident that they will be served with harsh punishment. I am very happy to ensure justice to the victim’s family members,” said Pinky’s lawyer Advocate Khaled Khan.

Apart from Pinky, police found out 18 more skeletons from Pandher's house in Nithari, Noida on December 29, 2006, reported PTI. Of these, most were young girls.

The two have already been convicted in seven cases and Pinky’s was the eighth one of the 16 murder cases against the two murderers.

The serial killings began in 2005 and went on for a year. Minor girls, young women and children became the victims of the serial killing as they started disappearing from around Pandher’s Sector 31 residence in Noida. The two convicts were first arrested by the Noida police on December 29, 2006 after it discovered the bones, skulls and other human remains of the Nithari victims from the backyard of the house.

Picture credit- NDTV

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