Nithari killings: Gallows for Pandher, Koli

Neelabh Srivastava and Achinta Borah

Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 13 (PTI) Businessman
Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surinder Koli were
sentenced to death by a special court Friday for rape and
murder of a 14-year-old girl Rimpa Halder, one of 19 victims
in the sensational Nithari serial killings.

Pronouncing the sentence in a packed court room, Special
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Rama Jain held the
crimes committed by 55-year-old Pandher and 38-year-old Koli
to be "rarest of rare" deserving capital punishment.

While the counsel of victim's family, Khalid Khan termed
the verdict as a "slap on the face of the CBI" which gave a
clean chit to Pandher, the businessman's son Karandeep Singh
said his father was innocent and he would appeal against the
judgement in the Allahabad High Court.

The Court had Thursday convicted Pandher and his servant
under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for murder,
rape, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.

In the final arguments this morning, the CBI had sought
death penalty for Koli and left the quantum of punishment for
Pandher for the court to decide as the agency had no charges
against him in this case.

During the half-hour long arguments, agency's counsel S P
Ahluwalia termed the killings by Koli as "rarest of rare" and
a fit case for capital punishment.

The judge said, "No more penalty could be awarded to the
accused persons otherwise they deserve more punishment as
their act of murder and rape in this particular case was
beyond all the canons of humanity."

After the court verdict, Pandher broke into tears while
Koli remained unmoved.

Earlier during final arguments, the CBI counsel argued
that Koli has no right to live in society because even today
he has no remorse of his deeds. "He continues to be a threat
to the society," Ahluwalia said.

The counsel submitted that Koli is a rare combination of
a person indulging in paedophilia (having sex with children)
and necrophilia (having sex with corpse) and there are no
chances of his becoming reformed and rehabilitated.

Ahluwalia said Koli used to lure innocent women and
children to the house of his employer Pandher before killing
them and later having sex with their bodies. In some cases, he
used to cook and eat their flesh, the counsel said.

However, in the case of Pandher, CBI said "whatever the
court deems fit, we will accept that."

CBI filed chargesheet in this case on May 19, 2007 in
which it gave a clean chit to Pandher while charging Koli with
rape and murder of Rimpa Halder at the house of the
businessman at Nithari in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi.

In its chargesheet, the CBI had mentioned that Pandher
was in Australia with his wife when the incident had taken
place and also attached his passport details, a contention
rejected by the court.

Rimpa was first of the 19 victims who was brutally killed
on February eight 2005 and her body was found hacked. Koli was
suffering from necrophilia (having sex with dead bodies) and
also charged with cannibalism (eating human flesh).

Investigations into the serial murders began in December
2006 when the skeletal remains of a number of missing children
and women were discovered from a drain near Pandher's house.

Besides rape and murder police had also probed
allegations of organ trade. PTI NES/ACB