Nithari Case
Nithari Case

Nithari is a village in far western Uttar Pradesh, India, bordering on the Capital, New Delhi, where the dismembered bodies of several children were found dumped in the sewers around a house, Number D-5, Sector 31.

Nithari forms part of the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority's planned industrial city, Greater Noida, falling in Sector 31.

The victims belonged to families of migrant workers from Bihar and West Bengal living in shanties or slums in the village.

Despite the complains of the parents that their children were missing no action was taken by the police. CBI was looking into the possible role of the police officers in the negligence.

The motive behind the killings appears to be sexual urge of the accused and necrophiliac tendency of his servant. The children were apparently lured into the house by Koli; he offered them sweets or promised jobs. Once the child went inside they would overpower the child. Pandher then abused them after which Koli would kill them and have sex with their corpses.

On Jan 25, 2007 Moninder Singh Pandher was beaten up in Court Premises in Ghaziabad. As the police force was escorting the two accused (including co-accused Koli) to a lockup nearby the court, some of the lawyers and angry people present there attacked on both of them.

The enraged crowd pulled Pandher by the hair, punched and kicked him badly. People demanded that the duo be handed over to the public. Pandher fainted after the beating.

On 15th Feb’2011, The Supreme Court took just 90 minutes to seal the fate of Surinder Koli by confirming his death sentence in a case of Nithari serial rape-cum-killing episode, which perhaps may be the fastest decision by it in a capital punishment hearing.

More Information
The 2006 Noida serial killings were a series of child murders that occurred in the village of Nithari on the outskirts of NOIDA City, Uttar Pradesh, a planned industrial township in Uttar Pradesh near New Delhi, India, and part of India's National Capital Region (India). The incidents came into light on 29 December 2006, when relatives of missing children began a search in the sewers around the house of suspect Moninder "Goldie" Pandher, a Punjabi businessman. Following the discovery, the police began a more systematic search and found several body parts in the sewers.

Pandher and his servant Surender Koli have been charged with kidnapping, raping and then murdering the children before dismembering their bodies and disposing of them in the drains behind Pandher's house. Police apparently latched onto Surinder when they traced a cellphone call originating from one of the victim's (Payal's) cellphones. The Nithari police found Body parts of some twenty-two victims, but more than 38 children are reported to have gone missing from Nithari in the last one year . The Nithari Murders Case catalyzed a revived police and media attention to similar cases of large incidences of missing children from other parts of Uttar Pradesh and other places in India. It has been found that more than 132 children are missing from the city of Kanpur, with the police not having any information about them.

The Nithari victims are mostly children of migrant labourers from Bihar and West Bengal, and the victim's families are incensed that police attention to the disappearances of the children was insufficient mainly because the victims and their families were migrants, poor and non-voters. One exception was Payal, a call girl; Pandher was her regular client. Many parents of missing children have alleged that the police did not take action and even refused to register their Police complaints (or FIRs) when they had reported their children missing. As a result of public outrage and media pressure, the Uttar Pradesh government suspended two S.P.s (Superintendents of Police) and six constables who had been operating the Nithari Police Station over the last three to four years during the time of the murders.

As the police have investigated the story they have started suspecting organ trade involvement as well, principally as the remains did not include the torsos. However Pandher and Koli denied the allegations of the involvement of organ trade. Later, Koli is alleged to have confessed to the police that he consumed body parts of a number of the victims after killing them. This could be an alternative explanation to the missing torsos. An advanced Narco-Analysis was conducted on both of them in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to verify their claims.

Information on Pandher
Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic servant, Subhash Kohli (alias Surendra) are the prime accused in the Noida serial killing of least thirty people, mostly children, from Nithari village in Sector 31 of Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.

In a media report, Surendra has confessed to the kidnap, rape and murder of least eight children, however, reports indicate that more than twenty children are missing and might be victims also. Partial skeletal remains of around 22 women and children have been unearthed around the house of Moninder Singh and the search for more remains is currently underway. Almost all the murdered children whose skeletons were found dumped in a drain behind house number D-5 in Noida’s Sector 31.Organ trade is looked upon by CBI which took the probe from NOIDA police.

Apparently, Moninder is an industrialist who studied from 1963-73 at the prestigious Bishop Cotton School in Shimla and graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi.

Pandher had inherited a successful family transport business. Moninder Singh Pandher had a disturbed childhood, according to people who knew him. He began drinking heavily later in life. While his estranged wife and son live in Chandigarh, he himself mostly lived in the house he owned in Noida.

His arrest and subsequent confession to serial rape and murder has thrown sharp focus on the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh and has sparked significant outrage and controversy. Also it has been alleged by some leading news channels, that Surendra is a cannibal, who killed young children and their body organs to treat himself, as he is stated to be impotent.