Koli, Pandher guilty of rape and murder

A CBI Special Court on Thursday held both the accused Surendra Koli and Moninder Singh Pandher guilty of rape and murder in the first Nithari serial killings case. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Friday.

Ghaziabad’s special CBI Judge Rama Jain convicted businessman Pandher and his domestic help Koli for raping and killing 14-year-old domestic help Rimpa Halder.

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The verdict came on the basis of presented evidence by CBI, cross-examination of Noida police officer Dinesh Yadav and the earlier statement of Anil Halder, the father of the victim.

Earlier, Surendra Koli had confessed his crime in the recorded statement by CBI. It was also medically proved that Koli was suffering from necrophilia (urge to have sex with a corpse) and necrophagia (urge to eat the flesh of a body).

Both Pandher and Koli were arrested in December 2006 by Noida police with accusation of killing and disposing off the bodies of at least 19 children between 2005 and 2006. The case was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation, viewing the complexity of the case.

The skeletal remains of the bodies were discovered in a drain close to Pandher’s house. The CBI team had, however, earlier given a clean chit to Pandher in the particular case citing the fact that he was not present in his house on the day of murder.

This was later questioned as there was no specific date of murder of Halder on record, and hence giving benefit of doubt to Pandher was not justifiable.

With this judgement, families of Nithari victims, especially the father of Halder hopes for justice who said that both should be awarded death sentence for their gruesome act.