Nithari killings: Pandher accused walks out of prison

Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli, 42, were arrested in December 2006 in connection with the grisly murders of at least 19 victims, women and young children

Five days after the Allahabad high court acquitted Moninder Singh Pandher in relation to the 2006 Nithari serial murder case, the 65-year-old walked out of the district jail in Gautam Budh Nagar on Friday afternoon.

Pandher outside the district jail in Gautam Budh Nagar on Friday afternoon. (HT PHOTO)

Pandher, who was one of the two suspects in the case, left the jail, with sunglasses and a mask on his face, and carried a small cloth bag. He left the jail premises in a grey sedan and was escorted out the jail premises by his lawyer.

Neither Pandher nor his lawyer spoke to medipersons outside the jail.

Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli, 42, were arrested in December 2006 in connection with the grisly murders of at least 19 victims, women and young children.

Devraj Singh, who represented Pandher during the first trial in the Ghaziabad court that started in 2007, said, “Pandher’s son was waiting in the car for his father and they left for their Chandigarh residence. He spent close to 14 years in jail over the last 17 years, with three years out on bail.”

On Monday, the Allahabad HC also acquitted Koli, who lived with Pandher at the infamous ‘D-5 kothi’ in Noida’s Sector 31. The court cited a “botched-up” investigationin a raft of cases linked to the grisly 2006 murders that surfaced after skeletal remains, skulls, bones, and other materials of the victims were found stuffed in plastic bags in the backyard and drain outside businessman Pandher’s house.

Luksar jail superintendent Arun Pratap Singh said that the jail received Pandher’s release orders on Friday.

“Pandher was lodged in the jail for two cases and the release order for one of them was received on Thursday, while the second one was received on Friday. After completing all the formalities, Pandher was released from jail around 2 pm,” said Singh.

He said that Pandher had been lodged in a ward for tuberculosis patients at the jailsince June 4 this year.

Meanwhile, co-accused Koli, who too was acquitted in all cases against him barring one, is lodged in Dasna jail in Ghaziabad.

On Friday, the news of Pandher’s release reached Noida’s Nithari village, where some of the victims’ families still reside. A 60-year-old Nithari resident, whose 10-year-old daughter was one of the victims, sat next to the Pandher residence where he sets up her ironing shop with his wife, 55, everyday.

“How can he walk free? Does this mean that the death penalty awarded to him by the trial court was wrong? Why was he in jail for so many years if he was innocent?,” said the 60-year-old.

A 48-year-old man and his wife, 45, who had lost their five-year-old son, said that for them, Pandher was still the culprit.

However, the families said they hope that they will get justice if the matter is taken in the Supreme Court. “If they want our testimonies again, we will go again and repeat the same statements that we have been giving for the last 17 years. That is the least we can do to get justice,” said the 60-year-old man.