Pandher, Koli Guilty of Rape, Murder: CBI Court

Ghaziabad: A CBI court here on Thursday held businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his aide Surendra Koli guilty in the rape and murder of housemaid Anjali in 2006.

It 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.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge P.K. Tiwari said since both were involved in the crime, they deserved to be punished.

The court held both guilty under Sections 376 (rape), 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence or false information) of the Indian Penal Code.

The two are the main accused in the case in which many children were abducted, sexually assaulted and killed inside the Noida house of Pandher.

It is the third case in which Pandher has been found guilty. He was sentenced to death in two cases earlier, while Koli had been found guilty in eight cases decided earlier and given the death sentence, said Sharma.

Chargesheets were filed against the two accused in 16 of the 19 cases, out of which nine cases 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, police recovered some human skulls and bones from behind Pandher's house in Noida.

DNA samples 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.

IANS