Revisiting The 2006 Nithari Serial Murders That Sent Shockwaves Across The Country

Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli were accused of killing several children and women in Noida’s Nithari village between 2005 and 2006.

Nithari Killings: Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli

One of the most sensational cases that sent shockwaves across the country, the 2006 Nithari serial murder case is making headlines again after the recent Allahabad High Court judgment. The High Court, in its verdict, acquitted the two accused in the case, Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic helper Surinder Koli, for lack of evidence. Pandher, 65, acquitted in both the two cases against him, walked out of Gautam Budh Nagar jail earlier this week after close to 14 years. 

A small village adjacent to the national capital, Nithari, hit the headlines after two girls went missing and human skeletons were found near D-5 in Noida’s Sector-31, between 2005 and 2006, which belonged to Pandher. 

Police Patrolling at the killing site at Nithari village. Image Source: Getty Images 

 

Case Of Missing Girl Led To Discovery Of Human Skeletons 

It was the year 2006, when a woman named Payal arrived at Pandher’s bungalow on a rickshaw. As she got off, Payal said she will pay the fare to the rickshaw puller once she is back, as per media reports from the time. After some time, when Payal did not come out, the rickshaw puller went to the bungalow to enquire about her only to be informed by Koli that she left a while ago. But the rickshaw puller claimed that he stood outside the whole time and did not see her come out. 

Around the same time, Nithari village had witnessed a surge in the cases of missing children for two years. As per an Indian Express report dated January 4, 2007, 20 children were reported missing in the village, though the villagers claimed there were 31 as police sometimes refused to register their complaints. 

Meanwhile, the news of Payal’s alleged disappearance reached her family who then lodged a complaint with the police and a probe was initiated by the investigators, unaware of what they were going to discover next. 

Payal’s call record and other details led the police to the same D-5 bungalow. Upon reaching the place, the investigators also found the remains of dozens of children in a drain behind the bungalow.

A dozen skulls, seven-part skeletons, several severed and decomposed body parts, and a number of slippers, sandals and school bags and a tiffin box were found by the police team, believed to be the belongings of the missing children. 

Doctors From All India Institute of Medical Sciences collect body parts recovered from the drainage. Image Source: Getty Images

Koli, a native of Uttarakhand’s Almora, was arrested by the police in connection with the matter who reportedly "confessed" that he killed Payal. On being questioned about the missing children, “he broke down and accepted that he was behind the kidnapping of some of them”, said the IE report. 

The 'confession' made by Koli later became the basis for prosecution, which was slammed by the Allahabad High Court in its latest order. 

Organ Trade Theory 

A Central panel, chaired by then Joint Secretary in the Women and Child Development Ministry Manjula Krishnan, was constituted in 2007 to look into the serial killings. 

The committee had suggested to not rule out the possibility of organ trading by Pandher as in the same year one of his neighbours, doctor Naveen Chowdhury, was accused for the same, though later given a clean chit, according to a News18 report. 

Police barricades and guards on the street of D 5 Sector 31 Noida, the residence of Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surendra Koli. Image Source: Getty Images 

In its order last week, the High Court observed that the Central Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the case, did not probe the organ trading angle while underlining Chowdhury's case. 

“It appears to us that the investigation opted for the easy course of implicating a poor servant of the house by demonising him, without taking due care of probing more serious aspects of possible involvement of organised activity of organ trading,” the bench observed, as per a Live Law report. 

Allegations of cannibalism against both the accused were also ruled out by the CBI. 

Prosecution And Trial

While the grisly murders of at least 19 victims remain a fact, the acquittal of the accused by the Allahabad High Court has brought everyone to the same question that was relevant 13 years ago — who killed them? Koli was twice sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2015. 

In 2022, hearings in all the 16 Nithari cases were completed by the trial court and in September this year, the Allahabad HC reserved its verdict on an appeal filed by Koli and Pandher against their conviction and death sentence. 

Police personnel are on petrol at Nithari village, Noida, where serial killing took place in which children and women were killed after sexually harassed. Image Source: Getty Images

In its 308-page order, the HC pulled up the CBI for its probe, expressing its “shock” as to how Koli's confession was recorded by the police after 60 days of police remand without any medical examination, as per the Live Law report. No legal aid was provided to him, and torture allegations levelled by him were not probed, the court added.