Nithari case: Pandher, Koli held guilty

Sentencing in 9th Nithari case to be decided today

A CBI court here on Thursday held businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli guilty of rape and murder of a housemaid, Anjali, in 2006.

Special CBI Judge P.K. Tiwari said since both the men were involved in the crime they deserved to be punished. The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment in the ninth case of what has come to be known as the Nithari killings on Friday, prosecution lawyer J.P. Sharma said.

Total 19 cases

It is the third case in which Pandher has been found guilty. He was sentenced to death in two earlier cases. Mr. Sharma said Koli was found guilty in eight cases decided earlier and he too was given the death sentence. Chargesheets have been filed against the two in 16 of 19 cases, of which nine have been decided till date. The family of Anjali, 25, had filed a missing person complaint after she failed to return home on October 12, 2006.

After Koli’s arrest on December 29, 2006, the police recovered some human skulls and bones from behind Pandher’s house in Nithari, Noida. DNA sample from one of the skulls matched with that of Anjali’s mother and brother. The clothes she was wearing when she went missing were also identified by her family.