Pandher, Koli get death in Nithari killings

Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surendra Koli were Friday sentenced to death for raping and killing a 14-year-old girl from Nithari village four years ago.

In the first verdict in what have come to be known as the Nithari killings, which shocked the nation with its overtones of sexual abuse and cannibalism, Special Judge Rama Jain had Thursday convicted Pandher and Koli for raping and killing Rimpa Haldar.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had earlier Friday asked the court to sentence Koli to death but were silent on Pandher.

Koli and Pandher were arrested on Dec 29, 2006, after police found 15 skulls outside the businessman's bungalow in Noida adjacent to the national capital. The house (D-5) in Noida's Sector 31, is next to Nithari village.

Subsequently, more bones were found in the drain behind the bungalow. Eventually, investigations revealed that the remains belonged to four women and 15 young girls who had been raped, killed and mutilated.

The CBI in its chargesheet in the gruesome murder of Haldar in May 2007 had exonerated Pandher of abduction, rape and murder. Two months later, however, the court reprimanded the agency and Pandher was made co-accused with Koli.

The CBI chargesheet stated that Haldar was strangled and then cut to pieces by Koli with two kitchen knives and an axe four years ago. It said Koli was suffering from necrophilia (urge to have sex with a corpse) and necrophagia (urge to eat the flesh of a body).