A special court in Ghaziabad on Thursday issued non-bailable warrants against two suspended officials of the Noida police for allegedly taking bribes to botch up the case relating to the Nithari killings in which at least 20 children and young women were raped and murdered. Dinesh Yadav, then circle officer, and VP Singh, then station house officer, face arrests for allegedly accepting bribes from SK Sharma, employee of prime accused Moninder Singh Pandher, to conceal and destroy evidence.

Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli had been arrested last year after the recovery of at least 20 human skulls from a drain behind Pandher's Noida bungalow Dec 29.

Hearing the case of 24-year-old Payal, one of the victims, judge Rama Jain of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court found both suspended officials "prima facie accused" for concealing the case diary.

"After hearing the testimony of Payal's father Nand Lal who saw the official accepting bribes, the court finds them prima facie accused in the case and issues non-bailable warrant against them," the judge said.

The court has asked the Ghaziabad senior superintendent of police to produce them on or before Aug 29.

It was Payal's murder that had led to the unravelling of the sex-related butcheries in Nithari village in Noida, adjacent to Delhi.