Pandher, Koli get death penalty in ninth Nithari rape, murder case
They were held guilty for the rape, murder of a 25yearold in 2006
GHAZIABAD: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ghaziabad on Friday handed the death penalty to businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli in connection with the rape and murder of a 25-year-old domestic worker in 2006.
This was the ninth of the 16 cases in which Koli was convicted and the third case involving both Koli and Pandher.
“In the legal system, punishment does not mean revenge. The precedent of ‘blood for blood’ cannot be implemented in a society. However, the motive of the state is to build a cultured society. It is possible only when such convicts are awarded the death penalty as they have become dangerous for the society,” special judge PK Tiwari said.
“There is no scope for their reform or rehabilitation. This case falls under the category of rarest of rare and both deserve death penalty,” he added.
The sentence is to be confirmed after an appeal at the Allahabad high court .
The CBI special prosecutor JP Sharma during the final arguments demanded the maximum punishment for both the convicts. “It was a brutal manner in which Koli murdered the victim and dismembered her body parts on October 12, 2006. She could be identified only with her clothes which were recovered from the premises of Pandher’s house. Koli used to cook and eat the body parts. Such accused need severe punishment and we demanded maximum sentence for the murder,” Sharma said.
The defence lawyers said that Pandher had already served nearly eight years in jail and is suffering from a health complication.
Koli, who argued for himself during the trial, said that he has not been given justice.
The CBI did not chargesheet Pandher in the case but he was summoned as the co-accused by the CBI court in December 2007. Pandher was summoned as co-accused in a total of five of 16 cases.
The Nithari killings came to light in December 2006 when the Noida police discovered skulls and skeletal remains of 16 persons, mostly children, from the backyard of Pandher’s home in Sector 31, Noida.
Koli is alleged to have lured children and women from nearby Nithari village into Pandher’s house. There, Koli allegedly attempted rape, murdered the victims and dismembered their body parts before throwing the remains into nearby drain and gallery. Sixteen of the 19 victims could be identified with the help of DNA testing and rest of the cases were closed.
The CBI filed 16 chargesheets against Koli for rape, murder, abduction and destruction of evidence while Pandher was charged in a single case under a section of Immoral Trafficking Act. During the course of the trial, he was summoned as co-accused in five cases.