Nithari rape and murder case: Does death sentence to accused bring relief?
One of the most horrific tales of our times - forever to remain a scar on Noida’s face - the Nithari serial killings continue to haunt us even a decade later. On Monday (July 24), a special CBI court in Ghaziabad sentenced businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli to death.
Both Pandher and Koli were awarded the death sentence by special judge Pawan Kumar Tripathi, who gave the ruling after finding them guilty of rape, murder, abduction and criminal conspiracy in the killing of 20-year-old Pinki Sarkar.
Sarkar, a domestic worker who worked in Noida’s Sector 30, was abducted by Koli in 2006, outside Pandher’s residence when she was returning home from work. They raped her and subsequently killed her. But they did not stop there. They mutilated the corpse of the victim as well. She was beheaded, and the head along with her garments were thrown in the drain behind Pandher’s residence. Koli was also charged with tampering of evidence.
According to reports, the court observed that the case falls under the “rarest of the rare” category.
The latest verdict is unlikely to bring any closure to the families whose children were raped, killed and cannibalised in Noida's horror house. The gruesome cases came to light in 2006 when the police discovered human skulls and bones, of mostly children, near Pandher's house in Noida's Nithari village.
The brutal killings also show how the police and politicians are apathetic to the pleadings of the poor.
Most of the children who had gone missing belonged to families where both parents have had to go out to work. Some of the girls, who were raped and murdered, were domestic workers or reportedly looking for work when they became victims of Koli and Pandher. While a number of parents claimed to have complained that there were children were missing from the village, they had been repeatedly ignored by the local authorities, including the police. The missing incidents later turned out to be one of the biggest serial killings in India.
The DNA of the skull matched with the parents of the deceased. Her clothes were identified by the parents. As per documents pertaining to the case, Koli made a disclosure that he had lured Sarkar and others, killed them and discarded their body parts in a similar manner.
“There is no scope for their [the accused] reform or rehabilitation. This case falls under the category of rarest of rare and both deserve death penalty,” the CBI special judge said.
There are a total of 16 cases against Padher and Koli, of which 8 have been decided so far and the Ghaziabad court has awarded death penalty in each case.
Saturday’s verdict was in the eighth case out of the 19 killings - police had discovered 19 skeletons from Pandher's house in Nithari in Noida on December 29, 2006. It is the second case, so far, in which both Pandher and Koli have been named as accused. In the first case in February 2009, the CBI court in Ghaziabad gave both Koli and Pandher the death penalty. After an appeal, however, the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and upheld Koli’s punishment. July 22’s verdict is the second one ever to find both the accused guilty.
Also read - Nithari case: How the judiciary ruled against bloodlust