Pandher walks in Rimpa murder case

Vijay Pratap Singh

Allahabad The Allahabad High Court acquitted Noida businessman Moninder Singh Pandher on Friday in one of the Nithari serial killing case but upheld the death sentence awarded by a Ghaziabad court to his domestic help Surinder Koli.

A special court in Ghaziabad had passed the death sentence on both on February 13 for the February 8, 2005 murder of Rimpa Halder, 14, at Pandher’s house: D 5, Sector 31, Noida.

On Friday, the HC Division Bench comprising Justices Imtiyaz Murtaza and K N Pandey said the grounds to convict Pandher are “not admissible” since there is no evidence on record against him.

But court said, “There cannot be any doubt that the case of Surendra Koli falls within the category of rarest of rare cases. The depraved and brutish acts of Koli call for only one sentence, and that is death.” The court clarified that findings recorded by it are only confined to the Haldar murder case and would not affect trial in other Nithari killings cases.

Pandher had got a clean chit from the Central Bureau of Investigation, which did not include his name in its chargesheet. But the trial court summoned him by using inherent powers under Section 319 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The HC Bench said the sessions judge summoned Pandher for trial on the basis of two incriminating circumstances: first, because he owned the house where the murders had been committed and, second, a saw was recovered, from information provided by him.

The court said Pandher was in Australia when Haldar was murdered, and there was no evidence that he was partner in any conspiracy to murder the girl. The court said a witness, Sub-Inspector R R Dixit, had stated that the saw was recovered on information given by Koli, and that Pandher was only present when it was recovered.

Besides, the court noted, the saw was not connected with the crime, for Koli had said in his confessional statement that he cut the bodies into pieces with a knife. Therefore, the court said, recovery of the saw cannot be taken as incriminating circumstance against Pandher.

The court noted that Koli’s confessional statement regarding Haldar’s murder excludes the involvement of any other person — the household hold stated that he was alone in the house at the time.

About Koli, the court observed: “We would not forbear from expressing that the accused Surendra Koli is a menace to the society. In the facts and circumstances of the case, the option of awarding life imprisonment is unquestionably foreclosed.” Link...