Pandher, Koli held guilty in Nithari murder case

Almost two years after the Nithari killings rocked the nation, Punjabi businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, 55, and his domestic help Surinder Koli, 38, were on Thursday held guilty of murder and rape of a 14-year-old girl.

The verdict in one of the 16 murder cases filed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the gruesome killings came as an egg on the face of the agency, which had squarely blamed Koli for the killings and given Pandher a clean chit.

Special CBI judge Rama Jain pronounced Pandher and Koli guilty of rape and murder of Rimpa Haldar, the domestic at Pandher’s palatial house in Nithari, Noida. The court also held them guilty of criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. The duo have been in judicial custody since January 2007.

The court is scheduled to announce the quantum of punishment on Friday. After hearing the verdict, Pandher broke down in the courtroom but Koli didn’t express any emotion.
The gruesome killings first came to light in December 2006 when residents of Nithari found human skeletons buried behind Pandher’s house. Forensic experts later found 57 bags full of skeletons from inside and outside Pandher’s house.

Koli, according to the chargesheet, was suffering from necrophilia (having sex with corpses) and was also accused of cannibalism.