Protest outside Moninder Singh Pandher's Noida residence

Locals today staged a protest outside Moninder Singh Pandher's residence here after the Allahabad High Court acquitted the businessman in one of the Nithari serial killing cases.

The High Court acquitted Pandher but upheld the death sentence of co-accused and his servant Surinder Koli in the rape and murder of 14-year-old Rimpa Halder, one of the victims of the infamous serial killings in Nithari in 2007.

Locals gathered in front of house no D-45 in Sector 31 of Noida soon after the verdict was pronounced and shouted slogans against the police and the CBI. Rimpa's mother Dolly Halder was also among the protestors.

Police have been deployed near Pandher's residence, which is close to Nithari village, to avoid any untoward incidents, a senior police officer said.

The trial court had awarded the death sentence to Pandher and Koli for murdering Haldar, who had gone missing from her house on April 27, 2006.