CBI court convicts Pandher and Koli; sentence tomorrow

A CBI court in Ghaziabad on Saturday convicted businessman Mohinder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli in one of the 2006 Nithari serial murder cases. The court would be pronouncing the quantum of the sentence for both the accused on July 24.

Pandher, who was out on bail, was taken into custody by the police after the court's judgement. Both of them are now convicted of the murder of a 20 year-old-woman.

CBI special judge Pawan Tiwari held Pandher and Koli guilty of murder, attempted rape and destruction of evidence. Both Pandher and Koli were present in the court at the time of the judgment.

The CBI had found the skull and clothes discarded behind the house of Pandher in Nithari. Koli had earlier confessed to rape and killing of children and committing acts of cannibalism.

Defence lawyer Devraj Singh contested the Prosecution's argument and claimed that on the date of the crime, Pandher was not present at the crime scene. He said it has been proved that on that date, he was in Dehradun. After listening to the arguments from both sides, the court found them guilty.

This is the eighth case related to the Nithari killings. Surinder Koli was earlier sentenced to death for seven of the sixteen cases filed against him while Pandher was released on bail. The case came to light in 2006 when the police discovered skulls and bones of 16 people , mostly children from near Pandher's house in his Noida village, Nithari.

The incident was widely reported by the media and the house of Pandher, D-5, in Noida's Nithari also came to be referred as 'House of Horror'.