Nithari killings: Special CBI court issues death sentence to prime suspect Surinder Koli

Surinder Koli, the prime suspect in Noida's infamous Nithari killings, has been sentenced to death by a special CBI court. He has been convicted under IPC 302 for raping and murdering a woman. As per PTI, Judge Rakesh Tripathi has also awarded seven years imprisonment to Koli's employer and businessman Moninder Singh Pandher under section 5 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, Advocate Devraj Singh said. 

The court imposed a fine of Rs 62,000 on Koli and Rs 4,000 on Pandher. Special CBI public prosecutor Darshan Lal said the agency has produced 83 witnesses before the court and their statements have been recorded. On the basis of evidence, Koli has been held guilty of killing, raping, hatching a conspiracy, and destroying proof of crime while Pandher was accused of immoral trafficking.

What is the Nithari Killing case?

The Nithari killings were committed between 2005 and 2006. The ghastly killings came to light when in December 2006, skeletons remains, skulls, bones and other materials were found in a drain near a house in Sector 31 in Noida's Nithari. Later during the investigation, it was found that Moninder Pandher is the owner of the house and Koli was his domestic help. 

It was alleged that Koli lured the victims and would later attempt rape before murdering the victims brutally, during which he also dismembered several body parts and even cooked them to eat. In the thirteenth case, a missing person complaint was filed after a minor girl went missing on April 27, 2006. On December 29 the same year, the local police discovered skeletons and other materials belonging to several of the Nithari victims from the backside gallery of Pandher's house, who later allegedly confessed before the police that he lured the girl inside his employer's house and murdered her after attempting rape.  

Initially the case was investigated by the Uttar Pradesh Police and was later handed over to the CBI. The CBI had registered 16 cases against Surinder Koli in all of them for murder, abduction, rape besides destruction of evidence, and Moninder Singh Pandher in one for immoral trafficking. Later, the Ghaziabad court, however, summoned Pandher in five other cases after several victims’ families approached it.

(With PTI inputs)