Fourth case: Koli gets death for rape, murder of minor girl

In a case related to Nithari killings, a special CBI court on Wednesday awarded Surinder Koli capital punishment for rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl — Depali Sarkar. Peeyush Khandelwal reports.

In a case related to Nithari killings, a special CBI court on Wednesday awarded Surinder Koli capital punishment for rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl — Depali Sarkar.

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This is the fourth Nithari case in which he has been given death penalty. Justice AK Singh held Koli guilty under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 364 (kidnapping) and imposed a fine of R10,000 on him.

The Nithari killings were detected by the Noida police in December 2006 and later probed by the CBI.

Koli's employer, businessman Moninder Singh Pandher, was not chargesheeted by the CBI in the case as he was found to be out of station when the crime was committed by the domestic help.

According to the CBI, on July 18, 2006 — the date of crime, the surveillance records of Pandher’s mobile showed that he was somewhere in Punjab.

Justice Singh described Koli as a ‘blot on the society’ and held him guilty of ‘cold-blooded murder’ of Sarkar.

Koli was also awarded life-long rigorous imprisonment and further seven years rigorous-imprisonment under several sections of Indian penal code.

The CBI had chargesheeted him for victim's kidnapping, rape and murder.

The judge said all punishments will run simultaneously. Sarkar, who had worked as a domestic-help in Sector-29 of Noida, went missing on July 18, 2006.

When she did not return home by 1.30pm, her mother Reeta Sarkar — a divorcee —began search and later lodged a missing report with the police on July 19.

Koli and Pandher were arrested in December 2006 soon after the recovery of human bones, skulls and other items from a drain near Pandher's D-5, Sector-31 residence in Noida. From the recovered items, Reeta identified victim’s slippers.